LangeMemo29

A widely used hydrological field manual describes water as “dynamic medium”. In other words, not only can water exist on earth in any of the three classical states of matter (solid, liquid, gaseous) and in any of the three major earthy environs (terrestrial, marine, atmospheric), but also water is constantly shifting between states and environments in ways that, according to the field guide, make it a chimerical and intricate object of observation. Water is a global phenomenon with global consequences, but today its study will be painstakingly, maddeningly local. On the ride out to today’s field site I leaf through the manual while in the back seat one of my interlocutors fiddles one of the many small ultrasonic devices she will be using today. The technology, she tells me, is not unlike the ultrasounds doctors and nurses use to furnish expectant parents with grainy, black and white images of their children to be. She cautions not extend this analogy to far, unlike the unwieldy machines plugged into electrical outlets hospital wards, this compact device will is efficient enough to run for eighteen months on batteries while suffering the indignities of wide temperature and weather variations while it surveys the hidden aquifers below. The obsessive tinkering belies another asymmetry between the two technologies. While this ultrasonic device is not three years old, replacement parts for it are no longer on the market. Lacking a sufficient budget, maintaining the device requires of numerous tiny and ingenious ad hoc repairs. This is not at all out of the ordinary, despite the fickle nature of water and its global import, demand for hydrological ultrasonic detectors is low, and the rapidly changing pace of the technology means that few of the devices remain on the market for more than a year or so. And so, in the interest of time, the tinkering continues as we approach our destination.