A light-hearted New York Times story related to the weighty subject of drought got its scientific spin from UC Davis groundwater hydrologist Thomas Harter. Reporter Jessie McKinley wrote a feature about California dowser Phil Stine. Dowsing, also known as water witching, is the ancient, mystical art of finding underground water using a Y-shaped stick.
Dowsers have been in demand recently as California struggles through its second year of drought, the story said. Harter told the reporter that there isn't scientific evidence that dowsers have any special talent for finding water, but he didn't entirely dismiss their gift.
Harter said people like Stine, who worked in the irrigation business for nearly half a century, could have an intuitive sense of where water is, simply by knowing the territory.
"It’s worth a bottle of whiskey to have a guy come out,” Harter was quoted in the story.
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