[at-l] Water pours out of tree

[pudscrawler at aol.com]

How interesting.  What is your explanation?
 
Kinnickinic 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: weathercarrot at hotmail.com
To: at-l at mailman.backcountry.net
Sent: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:04 AM
Subject: [at-l] Water pours out of tree


Interesting article from the San Antonio Express-News:

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original link:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081106.01A.mysterious_tree.1e37d78.html
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This East Side tree does its own watering

Web Posted: 08/10/2006 11:09 PM CDT

Vincent T. Davis
Express-News Staff Writer

Lucille Pope's red oak tree has baffled tree experts, water specialists and 
nursery professionals.
The knotted, towering tree, more than 100 years old, has become the root of 
scrutiny in her East Side neighborhood. The tree has gurgled water from its 
trunk for the past three months.

Lucille Pope drinks the water that is mysteriously leaking out of a tree in 
her backyard on the East Side.

Lloyd Pope catches the water springing from a tree in his backyard on the 
East Side.

Pope, 65, has sought answers from several specialists, calling experts from 
the Texas Forest Service, the Edwards Aquifer Authority and nurseries for an 
explanation.

They've combed her backyard, probing the gnarled tree that leans away from a 
parked white 1980s Cadillac.

After snapping pictures, doing taste tests and conducting preliminary 
studies, they're still working to give her a definitive answer.

"I got a mystery tree," Pope said. "What kind of mystery do I have where 
water comes out of a tree?"

The odd occurrence started in early April when her son, Lloyd Pope, noticed 
bark smeared with sap when he went to fill his the water trough of his 
stepson's dog Neno. After moving the Rottweiler's tray, he saw a wide stain 
that ran from the root up toward the branches, with fluid dripping to the 
ground from above.

Days later, he saw water streaming onto the ground from the other side, and 
he showed his mother the sight.

Lloyd Pope, 47, said the water was cool, like it came from a faucet. The 
only damp spot around the tree trunk is where the water lands.

The peculiar incident has the Popes wondering if the water has properties 
not found on tap.

Pope said her insurance agent dabbed drops on a spider bite that went away 
after the application on the welt. Pope said she's soaked her sore ankles in 
water from the tree and the pain has gone away.

Now she wonders, is it a tree that heals or water that blesses?

Her son doesn't believe the cause of the streaming water is anything holy or 
religious.

"I ain't with that superstitious stuff," Lloyd Pope said, sitting on the 
hood of the Cadillac, catching water spurting out of the tree in a plastic 
gallon jug. "There's no crying Mary here."

After hearing of the leaking tree, two water experts stopped by Wednesday 
afternoon to study the strange sight.

George Rice, a hydrologist on the board of the authority, and Annalisa 
Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, walked 
around the tree, touching the damp surface.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Rice said. "If you wanted to 
dream something up I'd say that somehow water pressure underneath is forced 
through some kind of channel in the tree. But that's still very unlikely."

Rice watched the water gurgling about 2 feet up from the roots, estimating 
the flow at a 10th or 20th of a gallon every minute.

Lloyd Pope offered a blue plastic cup of the cool water to Rice and several 
bystanders. After a sip, Rice said it tasted like it could have had a trace 
of saline, almost like something that could have gone through natural 
dissolving salts.

Rice took a quarter of a plastic bottle of water from the tree, analyzing it 
later with a quick examination kit that measured water conductivity.

"From a crude, free test I can't tell the difference," Rice said of the 
water he compared to Edwards Aquifer water. "It's 600 micromhos, the same as 
what comes out of my tap, maybe a little higher."

Mark Peterson, regional community forester from the Texas Forest Service, 
paid a courtesy call three weeks ago to help Pope figure out a logical 
explanation to the phenomenon. He hasn't done any extensive research but 
still is trying to identify the enigma. He's talked to consultation services 
without any results

He said he believes it could be a spring, adding that that would be rare 
with the drought conditions this summer.

Peterson plans to ask colleagues around the country via link services for 
ideas about the tree.

"If it is a burst pipe their monthly bill would be enormous," Peterson said. 
"It would definitely be reflected in their bill."

Pope said she doesn't think the cause is a broken water pipe. She said her 
water bill is normal and hasn't fluctuated from the monthly average.

The only fluctuation she's seen she said is in the morning when the water 
flow is more forceful.

Roland Ruiz, spokesman for the authority, said that early in the morning he 
would suspect that the aquifer level would be up.

"With a high demand the level would be down," Ruiz said. "As the demand 
dropped, theoretically it would go up."

Thursday afternoon Ruiz said a science team member researched the elevation 
of the area and said that it's unlikely that the water from the tree is from 
aquifer springflow.

The family members said they plan to call the San Antonio Water System for 
an assessment.

After Rice and Peace left with their sample of water, Lloyd Pope continued 
to sit on the hood of the Cadillac, pressing the mouth of the nearly filled 
jug to the spout of water, just as he does every other day. Then he put the 
collected water, which he said is better than faucet water, in the icebox.

His mother cupped her hands to the tree, drinking the pooled water spilling 
over her fingers.

She's still waiting to find out if the source of the mysterious water flow 
is an artesian spring, a broken water pipe or an abandoned well.

Or possibly something else.

"I just want to know if it is a healing tree or blessed water," she said. 
"That's God's water. Nobody knows but God."

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vtdavis at express-news.net
Staff Writers Carmina Danini and Jerry Needham contributed to this report.


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