WorldWide Drilling Resource

Tales from the Field by Jeremy C. Wire Geoconsultants, Inc. Shifting Property Boundaries It is hard to imagine working in the field before the advent of GPS and the convenience of Google aerial photos and related tools. In the past, although there were parcel maps and records of surveys in local county archives, this information was rarely available in the field during a preliminary site visit. Often, on large properties such as ranches, the only way to verify land boundaries for a proposed water well location survey was to meet the land owner or ranch manager in the field. Sometimes this involved a long trip from the office, with no guarantee this activity would develop into a project. In riding around the property, the owner or manager would point to an object off in the distance and say something like, “Over there is a fence corner, being the southeast corner of the ranch, and then you can see the south boundary line along the top of the ridge . . .” Or some similar comment. Later it might be found that the fence lines did not exactly match the property boundary lines, based on a boundary survey. In one instance, a water well was drilled inside a fence, thought to be the property boundary. The owner of the property was pleased at the outcome of the well, but was not so happy when a later survey indicated the well was actually ten feet into the neighbor’s parcel. To avoid a dispute which might have ended in court, the two parties involved decided to share the well. We never found out how long this peaceful solution may have lasted. In another instance, we thought we had a property description correct on a potential project based on a telephone discus- sion with the owner and other information he provided. When we arrived at the site to proceed with the work, in discussion with the owner, we thought the “search area” was around ten acres, but found we were mistaken by a magnitude of ten . . . it was more like 100 acres in size! This error in judgement called for additional field and office time to complete the project at our expense. In the past, it seems, we often had to gain experience “the hard way”. Now, with GPS coordinates in hand during planning of such a project, this error would not have occurred. Sometimes, the way we worked in “the good old days” is best forgotten, in favor of using all the modern technology that is now available to us. Jeremy Jeremy Wire may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com www.starironworks.com 257 Caroline Street Punxsutawney, PA 15767 800-927-0560 • 814-427-2555 Fax: 814-427-5164 SERVINGTHECONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Serving the Drilling Industry 32 MAY 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® EXB