33 in fluid communication with the fluid of the tensiometer the transducer sensor not shown is contained within the transducer housing 32 the nose cone is attached to a rigid tubing 40 preferably rigid tubing 40 is pvc tubing however other types of impermeable tubing could also be utilized i e stainless steel brass plastic the transducer housing 32 has a first end 33 that is in fluid contact with the degassed water 26 wire leads 42 which extend from the transducer sensor housing to the data logger 35 in fig1 are also shown attached to the transducer housing 32 second end is a reference port 34 that further connects to a reference vent tube 36 reference vent tube 36 is a small diameter tubing that can extend beyond the rigid tubing 40 and into the tubing that extends to land surface 46 tubing 46 can be flexible semi rigid tubing or rigid tubing and attached to rigid tube 40 by several methods such as band 48 shown in fig4 its purpose is to raise and lower the pressure sensor and allow downward pressure to be applied to the sensor to seal the device reference vent tube 36 is attached to the reference port 34 via heat shrink tubing or other sealable means the reference vent tube 36 vents the second end of the transducer sensor to the atmosphere accordingly the transducer measures the pressure caused by the water within the body as a function of atmospheric pressure since the self compensating tensiometer measurements are not affected by the height length of the water reservoir the reservoir can be lengthened to allow more water to be contained.