AGW scientists have had many years of experience in locating both new
sources of ground water and in locating optimum well sites. Each project represents
new and different challenges. Our approach always includes acquiring standard types
of geological, hydrological and both surface and wireline geophysical data. Our firm
is unique because we are the developers of several unique and proprietary geophysical and
radiometric methods including Thermonics, FracRad and Zeta-SP. These methods give us
the edge and lead us to share the risk with the client. If we are successful, we
share the benefit.
Under our program, we will commit to conduct all work pursuant to our
standard terms and conditions at cost. If we
are successful, we qualify to obtain our regular consulting fee plus continuing periodic
payments based on production.
We do not accept every assignment and you will find our fees too
expensive for many types of projects. For example, it is obvious that within the
field of ground-water exploration, there is a range of techniques that have different
costs and different benefits. The choice of ground water exploration methods that
satisfies your needs with the resources and skills that you have available will dictate
what you are willing to pay.
In the case of rural water supply, appropriate or intermediate
technology may have low performance with low benefits but it will also have a low cost.
We have, for example, recommended against top-head drive, air-rotary, drilling
equipment in Zaire in favor of labor intensive hand-dug wells and infiltration galleries.
In these cases, you do not need our services.
When a high capacity water supply is needed for agricultural,
industrial or municipal purposes, our guaranteed, turnkey, ground-water exploration and
development program is justifiable. There is a cutoff where the cost for our
services is not justifiable.
Furthermore, for clients interested in both high capacity, ground-water
supply and lower capacity ground-water supply for rural villages, we will undertake the
work for the lower capacity, ground-water supply systems for our standard consulting fees
if we are under contingency fee contract for the higher capacity systems.
Much of our initial work is carried out before setting foot in the
field. Before accepting you as a client, we will enter into a standard consulting
agreement including a retainer fee to review all relevant geologic, hydrologic and
geophysical information from public and private sources. Indeed, as our client, we
will ask you to provide important information. If we accept your project, we will
enter into a contingency fee contract with you in which the parameters of our successful
performance are specified. In any event, all preliminary data we obtain will be
provided to you whether or not we accept your project.
Our contingency fee contracts are worked out in consultation with you
and with our local legal counsel to ensure compliance with all local laws, customs and
financial regulations. We maintain relationships with attorneys and banking
institutions worldwide.
Many of our successful ground-water location and optimum well-site
location programs are discussed in narrative fashion on this web site. In one recent
and unusual case, we charged our standard consulting rates but we also guaranteed to bring water in from elsewhere
if we were unsuccessful.
AGW scientists have designed and supervised the construction of
hundreds of wells, both shallow and deep, using both oil-well and water-well technology.
We have specified drilling equipment for ground-water-exploration projects
worldwide and have carried out trouble shooting missions throughout Africa, South America
and Southeast Asia. We also use the most modern, high-speed, field-portable,
data-acquisition systems for conducting aquifer performance tests. With years of
experience and more than 1,000 tests using all types of wells behind us, we know what we
are doing.
We also can build an appropriate digital computer model of your well
field for the purpose of evaluating well spacings and aquifer management. This work
is done in our home office for our standard consulting fees. We will train your
hydrologists and we will turn over the operation of all models to you. Our
Thermonic, FracRad and Zeta-SP data remains proprietary.
We have fashioned a generic proposal for you
to consider in seeking approval of and funds for our services.
If you want to discuss a specific project with us, please contact us by e-mail.