A trip to the Netherlands in 2011 inspired Marian Singer and Nicholas Hayes to transform themselves from business consultants to entrepreneurs.
No other country in the world, including the United States, could match the volume of groundwater information captured by the European nation, and Singer and Hayes saw an opportunity.
“Everywhere in the world, there are areas of high water risk,” Singer said. “You have to measure it and quantify it.”
Singer and Hayes, who operated the Five Twelve Group in Milwaukee for a dozen years, left that business behind and launched WellnTel in 2013, after developing their technology with a team of experts.
Their well monitoring system uses a digital signal that creates a picture of the water level, the well infrastructure and any changes taking place. The information is sent to a website that tracks changes in water levels and alerts well owners to looming problems.
“We can help them avoid risky failures,” said Hayden, the chief technology officer. “A dry well on a farm makes it impossible to produce a crop.”
Hayden and Singer project sales of the $500 units will total roughly 8,000 in 2015, with the potential for rapid growth. Singer said there are 12 million residential and agricultural wells in the U.S.
Each one of them with a Wellntel sensor will become a groundwater monitoring station for the associated region, helping track changes in groundwater vital to water agencies and municipal officials.
