The Tecolote Tunnel MysteryBy Dave Palmer

In the 1950’s, flooding impeded construction of the Tecolote Tunnel through the Santa Ynez Mountains. By its composition and the depth at which it was encountered, the 13 million gallons a day was not rainwater. Some of the water was hot, as much as 117˚F, and mineralized, some was cool and exceedingly pure. The flows were stopped so construction of the six-mile long tunnel to connect Santa Barbara to the Cachuma Reservoir could continue.

The irony of the situation was not lost for one Foothill Boulevard resident, mining engineer Stephan Riess. Riess knew the origin of the water encountered. Indeed, he had similar experiences and “turned his life around to understand such occurrences.”1

Riess’ first encounter with primary water happened in the 1930’s. While working in a deep mine in the Sierra Nevada, a load of dynamite set off to break up rock at the bottom of the mine started a flood of water apparently coming from nowhere. By its temperature and purity, the flow, over 36 million gallons a day, was not ground water. The question of where the water was coming from was made more mysterious because the mine was nearly at the top of the mountain range.2

Puzzled by what he witnessed and not finding any explanation in his textbooks, Riess took up his own study. He consulted with scientists and traveled around the world visiting natural springs and mines. A lot of information was circulating during those times. A paper by Professor Adolf Erik Nordenskiold concluded that water was formed deep within the earth and could be contacted in hard rock.3 A treatise on water by Josiah Edward Spurr stated that it had been long recognized that water was an essential component of magma, clearly shown by the presence of steam in volcanic eruptions.4 Some of the very large springs Riess became aware of in the United States included a spring in Missouri that flows at 800 million gallons a day, a spring in Oregon at 690 million gallons a day, and a series of springs along the Snake River in Idaho that flow at over 3.5 billion gallons a day.5

He listened to travelers’ tales about ancient springs that laid the basis for ancient civilizations and he visited castles on trips to Europe. Castles were commonly situated on high rocky promontories and supplied with fresh water from wells hewn in hard rock. The wells typically were two meters in diameter over 200 meters deep. La Ferriere, a stone fortress high above the Haitian plain built in the early 19th century, is an example of siting on a rock water source. It is supplied by a well that is deep, cold, and fed by an inexhaustible spring.6

Riess knew that most mines were flooded out before they were worked out and that most working mines are pumping huge amounts of water. This is common knowledge in the mining industry. Famous examples include the big ones: the Comstock and the Tombstone. The Comstock in Virginia City, Nevada, was mined while pumps pulled 5 million gallons of water a day. When the pumps failed in 1886, the mine flooded in less than two days. The Tombstone in Arizona was worked while de-watering at 2.3 million gallons a day. In 1909 the mine was closed when a boiler breakdown shut down the drainage system and the entire complex flooded beyond redemption.7

Riess stumbled into another clue, again in a mine in the United States. While working late one night he heard a hissing sound coming from a ball-mill that crushes ore into mud. Turned off for the night, Riess was surprised to see water coming out of the bottom of the mill and gas bubbling up through the mud. Riess believed he was witnessing virgin water being created by the crystallization processes within the rocks perhaps in interaction with the chemicals used in the mill. Later he duplicated what he witnessed in the laboratory.8

He concluded that new water is continually released during the process of rock formation. Briefly, magma in motion deep within the earth produces mineral-bearing gases, steam, and water that are forced up into the fractured overlaying crystalline rock. This new water deposits its minerals and migrates through rock fissures underground that Riess called “nature’s own pipelines.” To locate these veins, Riess learned to observe the surface topography. An important surface feature is a contact zone, a place where two different kinds of rock adjoin a natural fissure. An example is an overlaying layer of sedimentary rock, with an underlying igneous rock, such as basalt, forced up through it. The new water comes up in these fissures between sedimentary and crystalline rock. Riess determined that this water is always in motion and moves between its gas, liquid, and mineral states. It is free of leach minerals, pollution, and safe from nuclear fallout. Primary water is available all over the world. The supply will last as long as the earth is active.9

Riess’ first opportunity to try his theory came in 1934 while working for Herbert Hoover and his sons. A mine in Nelson, Nevada, needed water to make it profitable. Reiss offered to drill a well into hard rock. Because the owners were so skeptical and were wary of the ridicule that would surely accompany a drilling rig being brought in, Reiss instead had a shaft chiseled out of the hard rock. After weeks of digging, he struck water at 182 feet. The water rose so quickly to within six feet of the surface that the workmen barely had the time to get out of the shaft with their tools. It tested continuously for weeks with no drawdown. The well, and the mine, was a spectacular success.10

Eager to recreate his success, Riess purchased a property in Simi Valley where he was sure he could find water. His first well, drilled in 1934, could do 1,200 gpm with no drawdown.11 In 1953 he added a couple of more wells that, in total, supplied 3,000 gpm. Independently verified for 18 months, the 80 ft. x 200 ft. property sold for one million dollars in 1955 making it one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in California at that time.12

Riess went on to drill hundreds of successful wells into hard rock.13 Most of his wells are in Southern California. A well he drilled in Camarillo in 1945 saved a fledgling nursery. By 1953 the well was still reliably producing at 700 gpm with no drawdown.14 In 1955, an Anza Valley farmer was desperate for water after drilling a few dry holes including a professionally-advised well that yielded only four gpm. Riess had the farmer cut a road to a level spot on top of a small granite hill, causing quite a commotion. Onlookers were amazed when Riess struck

water at 302 feet. The completed well, drilled in hard rock, tested continuously for over a month at 400 gpm. In 1959, Riess was invited to Israel to locate water. He drilled a well in solid granite in the Negev desert that supplied a city of over 100,000 people. The exceptionally high quality water had only 1/6th the dissolved solids compared to other wells in the area. For his service, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented Riess with a medal. Later in 1959 Riess drilled a well for the San Bernardino Municipal Water District in Yucaipa. Drilled into solid granite, it delivered 600 gpm.15

By Riess’ own admission, he added little to the theory; he just made it practical.16 The information he was using was far from new.

Around that same time engineers in Santa Barbara were tunneling through the Santa Ynez, a French engineer and expert on the origin of water in crystalline rock, Professor C. Louis Kervran, was encountering the same thing. In fact, he knew of so many cases—thousands—in which tunneling into mountain rock caused sudden floods, some which wiped out the construction sites, that he didn’t bother to collect data on them.17 The Tecolote Tunnel experience was neither mysterious nor unique to those familiar with primary water. The tunnel tapped into a self-sustaining permanent source of exceptionally pure new water from deep within the earth.

Rocks Make WaterSchool children are taught that the Earth has a finite

amount of water that cycles from the rain to the rivers to the ocean where it evaporates to become rain again. Notwithstanding that the Earth is bombarded with tons of ice comets every day, the theory is resoundingly false.

There is a reason why the Earth is sometimes called the “water planet” in ancient texts. Evidence throughout recorded history that shows that water is formed within the Earth. Anaxagoras (500 – 428 BCE) stated that the oceans were filled by rivers and by waters of the Earth. He said the rivers were also from the water of the Earth. Plato and Aristotle said water was formed within the Earth. Vitruvius in his Ten Books on Architecture, published between 27 – 17 BCE, said water was best found in rocks.

Castles in Europe were commonly situated on high rocky promontories. Typical were center courtyards with stone wells about 2 meters in diameter and 200 meters or more in depth. These wells supplied water for centuries. One example is the fortress on the Inner Farne islet in Scotland. In 1952 when a National Geographic journalist visited he nearly fell into a “large cistern filled with ice-cold water.”

La Ferriere, a stone fortress high above the Haitian plain built in the early 19th century,is another example of siting on a rock water source. It is supplied by a well that is deep, cold, and fed by an inexhaustible spring. Ain-es-Sultan, “The Sultan’s Spring,” in Palestine has supplied water since Neolithic times. At Cyrene in northeastern Libya the famous Fountain of Apollo still comes forth from a tunnel hewn in rock just as it has for well over 2,000 years. The enormous spring at Zaghouan outside the ancient city of Carthage was the source for the bountiful Algerian and Tunisian grain harvests under Roman rule for over three centuries. It still flows through a Roman temple in the Atlas Mountains.

The Ain Figeh Spring in Syria supplies the entire

population of Damascus and is the principal source of the Barada River. The spring flows out of a limestone formation and has been enclosed in a structure since Roman times. The flow averages about 132,000 gallons per minute (gpm). The quality is excellent. The temperature of 14˚C and pH of 7.9 are nearly constant and bacteria is virtually nonexistent at the source.

The Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Israel to the Persian Gulf and includes the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq, is supplied at it’s easternmost point by a cave in an iron-red limestone cliff. This flow becomes the Jordan River. At it’s westernmost point are springs. One flows from the foot of a buttress on Mt. Hermon and another pours from the cliffs in waterfalls.

The tapping of rock water, also called primary water, in earlier times demonstrates a knowledge of our living planet that is uncommon today. Yet water still flows from rocks when tapped unintentionally, as the mining industry repeatedly discovers. A lot of mines are washed out before they are worked out, and most working mines are pumping huge amounts of water.

The Comstock silver mine complex in Virginia City, Nevada was mined while pumps pulled over 5 million gallons of water a day. In 1886 the pumps failed and in less than 2 days water filled the entire lower workings of the 4 mines and miles of crosscuts. The Tombstone mine in Arizona reopened in 1905 when de-watering was successfully pulling 2.3 million gallons of water a day. In 1909 the mine was closed for the last time when a boiler breakdown shut down the drainage system and the entire complex flooded beyond redemption.

Another interesting case of water from rocks happened in 1955 in New York. During the excavation for an addition to the Harlem Hospital copious amounts of water were encountered at only 12 feet. For construction to continue water was pumped continuously for over a year at 2,200 gpm. The water maintained a constant temperature, even in winter, and was very pure. Over a billion gallons of water were pumped until the 12 story building being erected on the site became heavy enough to hold down the foundation against the hydrostatic pressure. Establishment geologists couldn’t explain it and never mention it. Yet the source has been known for millennia.

In the 19th century, Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, a professor of mineralogy, began to study primary water. He was inspired by his father, the Chief of Mining in Finland, who told him that iron mines along the Finnish coast were never penetrated by sea water, but always had fresh water present. During the last part of the century, Nordenskiold was finding water by drilling into promontories and rocky islands off the Swedish coast. He concluded that water was formed deep within the earth and could be contacted in hard rock. He wrote a paper called “About Drilling for Water in Primary Rocks” which earned him a Nobel prize nomination.

In the 20th century the same natural phenomenon was stumbled upon by Stephan Riess. Riess, a Bavarian mining engineer, emigrated to California in 1923. Shortly after arriving in the Sierra Mountains, he came upon a mining operation with an ore processing problem. He solved their problem and became famous almost overnight. Herbert Hoover invited Riess to join in his metallurgical processing firm. This led to Riess’ first encounter with primary water. It happened while he was

working in a deep mine. A load of dynamite set off to break up rock at the bottom of the mine started a flood of water apparently coming from nowhere. Pumps with a combined rate of 25,000 gpm did not abate the influx. The temperature and purity of the water indicated it was not ground water. The question of where the water was coming from was made more mysterious since the mine was nearly at the top of the mountain range. When Riess could find no explanation for the anomaly in textbooks he began his own study.

Reiss studied castles on trips to Europe and listened intently to travelers’ stories of ancient wells in the Middle East. Back in the United States, while working in a mine late at night, he heard a hissing sound that was accompanied by trickling water. The source of the sound was a ball-mill that crushes ore into mud. Turned off for the night, Riess was surprised to see water coming out of the bottom of the mill, and gas bubbling up through the mud. Riess believed he was witnessing virgin water being liberated from rock created by the crystallization processes within the rocks and possibly due in part to the interaction of the chemical catalysts used in the mill. Later he duplicated what he witnessed in the laboratory. He concluded that water was continually manufactured in rock strata deep in the earth where the temperatures and pressures were conducive. This primary water was then forced up into rock fissures where it could be tapped.

Riess got his first opportunity to prove his theories at a mine near Nelson, Nevada in 1934. Water was needed to make the mine profitable. Because the owners, Herbert Hoover and his sons, were so skeptical, and to avoid the ridicule that would surely accompany a drilling rig being brought in, Reiss instead had a shaft chiseled out of the hard rock. After weeks of digging, he struck water at 182 feet – the water quickly rising to within 6 feet of the surface. Pumped continuously for weeks, there was no drawdown. The well was a spectacular success and provided plentiful water for over ten years until the mine was shut down. When re-opened in 1977, the well was used again. Riess was confident he could recreate his success at Nelson.

Riess learned to look for restricted faults or breaks in the earth’s crust. Such breaks rarely reach the surface. Where they do great natural springs of primary water occur. One example is the spring in Kings Canyon National Park. It is above all drainage and pours forth at thousands of gallons per minute. Riess’ method begins with a detailed study of the surface topography. One key is to locate contact zones – places where two different kinds of rock strata adjoin a natural fissure. An example of this is an overlaying layer of sedimentary rock with an underlying igneous rock, such as basalt, forced up through it. The resulting surface formation is called a dyke. Water comes up from deep within the earth in these fissures between sedimentary and crystalline rock. If the fissure has a displacement, the water can be contacted far from the dyke. It can also flow in lateral channels great distances. A thorough understanding of the geology is necessary. Such surface protrusions are common in many places in the world.

One such place is Simi Valley, California where Riess purchased a small plot of land in Black Canyon. His first well there flooded the local railroad track. His three wells combined provided 3,000 gpm and fed a lush garden and pool.

Riess, again popular, was contracted to find water locally. The Sinaloa Ranch was subdivided after Reiss found water sufficient for suburban development. Rancho Dos Vientos increased in value fivefold when Riess drilled two wells that provided enough water to fill a small lake. Dr. John C. Campbell’s lemon orchard was supplied with water during an extended drought. Another orchard was saved by two wells each of which produced over 400 gallons per minute. A well for Candido Ivaro saved his fledgling operation – pumped at 550 gpm because that’s all the pump could do – it had no drawdown.

Word of Riess’ wells raised the ire of the Water Resources Division (WRD). He was finding water while they were saying that there was no water and advocating elaborate bring-it-in-from-far-away water projects. The WRD was feeling some public pressure. A 1953 article in Fortnight magazine spotlighted Riess’ 69 successful wells and attacked the WRD. A slander campaign against Reiss ensued. In 1955, the undeniable integrity of Riess’ work was validated by Clint Murchison, a Texas oil millionaire, who, after testing Riess’ wells in Simi Valley for 18 months, paid one million dollars for the 80 ft. x 200 ft. plot of land, making it one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in California at that time.

News of the sale inspired the Sparkletts’ water company president, Burton Arnds, to seek help from Riess. His six month old, WRD-advised wells at the Lakeside bottling plant, that initially brought in 100 gpm, were yielding increasingly harder water and drying up. Riess found water by deepening one of the dry wells. The high-quality water flowed at 300 gpm. Twenty-two years later, in 1977, Riess revisited the site. His well had been continuously producing at the same rate the whole time; a nearby second well he had drilled as an emergency back-up had never been used.

The WRD stepped up their attack. One attacker was University of California geologist Dr. John F. Mann, Jr. The confrontation sparked an inquiry by the Chief of the Pacific News Bureau of the Christian Science Monitor, Kimmis Hendrick. Hendrick learned that Mann had recommend a well to an Anza Valley farmer that yielded only 4 gpm. He told Riess about it. Riess had the farmer cut a road to a level spot on top of a small granite hill. News of the activity brought WRD officials to the site. They warned the land owner not to drill. Riess struck water at 302 feet. Sabotage to the drilling operation delayed drilling for two days. The completed well, drilled in hard rock, tested continuously for over a month at 400 gpm.

Riess, now internationally famous, was invited to Israel in 1959 where he received a medal for drilling a well that supplied a city of over 100,000 people. The water had only 1/6th the dissolved solids compared to other wells in the area.

Riess’ work was stymied by California Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown. During the political movement to create the California Aqueduct, Riess contracted with the San Bernardino Municipal Water District to bring water to the entire county. The contract was for seven million dollars, a small fraction of amount the Aqueduct would cost the county. Riess’ first well was in Yucaipa and, drilled into solid granite, delivered 600 gpm. The County’s acceptance was blocked by the Governor. Riess did the work at his expense ($200,000) and sued three times before winning his claim to recover his expenses. Reiss took his story to United States Senate in 1959, only to incite still more attacks from the WRD.

By this time, though, Riess wasn’t the only public proponent of tapping primary water produced in rock. There were others. Michael Salzman, a former engineer with the U.S. Navy’s Hydrographic Office and the first to translate Nordenskiold’s essay in English, wrote a book, New Water for a Thirsty World, after years of studying Riess’ work.

In France, Professor C. Louis Kervran wrote an essay in 1977 on the origin of water in crystalline rock. He knew that most of the wells in his native Brittany were found by dowsers and dug into solid granite. In his career he knew of so many cases where tunneling into rock created copious floods that wiped out the construction sites that he didn’t bother to collect data on them. During a drought in 1976 the French Geological and Mining Bureau loaned drilling equipment to find water in the region. Successful wells were drilled into crystalline and metamorphic terrain.

During his research, Kervran got a peak inside the Katell-Roc S.A. wells in France. Katell-Roc was bottling pure, almost mineral-free water. Kervran toured three wells each about 30 meters in diameter and 9 meters deep, hewn in solid granite. The wells are fed by a fissure only millimeters in width, yet they refill each day. The composition of the water is significantly different than the rainwater wells in the region.

Water from deep within the earth is free of leach minerals, pollution, and safe from nuclear fallout. Stephan Riess concluded that water is always in motion and moves between its gas, liquid, and mineral states. He determined that water is constantly being created in rocks by electrochemical conditions deep within the earth, where rocks become fluid, and flows in fissures underground that he called “nature’s own pipelines.” High quality new water is available all over the world.

Notes

1 Stephan Riess, address to the Select Committee on National Water Resources of the U.S. Senate, 16 Oct. 1959.

2 Christopher Bird, “Primary Water,” Alternate Energy Seminar, Atlanta, Feb. 1983.

3 A. E. Nordenskiold, About Drilling for Water in Primary Rocks, trans. Michael H. Salzman.

4 Bird, “Primary.”5 Riess.

6 Christopher Bird, The Divining Hand (1979; Atglen: Schiffer, 1993) 150-152.

7 Bird, Divining 154-155.8 Bird, Divining 150.9 Riess.10 Bird, Divining 154.

11 “Revolution in Water-Seeking, Part I” Fortnight 31 Aug. 1953: 10.12 Joe Paul, Jr., “Riess Sells Water Wells for $1,000,000.” Ventura

County Star-Free Press 30 Sept. 1955.

13 Bird, “Primary.”

14 “Revolution in Water-Seeking, Part II” Fortnight 14 Sept. 1953: 19.15 Bird, Divining 163-170.16 “Revolution, Part I” 12. 17 Bird, Divining 158-160.

More information: www.PrimaryWaterInstitute.org