Stephan Riess
Stephan Ernst Riess (26 December 189817 December 1985) was a German geochemist, mineralogist, geo-hydrologist and dowser who immigrated to the US after World War I. He worked for over five decades, located over 800 water wells, and studied the concept of earth-generated water, also known as "new water" or "primary water". Riess ultimately formulated the Theory of Primary Water and through the applied science of geo-hydrology, the study of surface waters of deep Earth origin, worked to end water scarcity globally. Riess's theory of primary water was criticized in mainstream geological and hydrological publications. A number of wells cited by Reiss as examples of high-yield primary water were found on analysis to be of meteoric origin. In addition, several wells drilled by Reiss did not perform as he had promised. Although the existence of large reserves of water deep underground are not disputed, the potability of such water is. Biography Born in 1898 to the Prussian Army officer Herman Franz Wolf Riess von Scheurnschloss and his wife (née Koch) in Dillingen on the Danube, Kingdom of Bavaria (by that date part of the German Empire), he joined a "school ship" at the age of 14 to train to become a