Kyle Courtney, groundwater expert and owner of Wellstar Groundwater Technologies, has been in the business of drilling water wells in Texas for over 30 years. In fact, as a licensed driller and pump installer, he has drilled over 600 wells in that region.
Throughout his experience as a driller, he began to study the science of groundwater in the state of Texas. He developed partnerships with prominent groundwater monitoring scientists, systems and regulatory bodies to help him in his research.
He found that one of the biggest challenges plaguing drillers was having access to important information about their wells — and making sure it was as accurate as possible.
To help solve that problem, he created MyWaterWell.com, a software as a service (SaaS) application designed to serve the needs of commercial and residential groundwater professionals, community water systems, regulatory agencies, individual well owners and others.
“Like most innovation, MyWaterWell was born out of necessity,” says Courtney. “Our decades of experience have taught us what’s needed and we’re excited to bring a practical solution to help solve one of our industry’s greatest challenges.”
According to Courtney, the application is the first ever graphically based information management system in the groundwater industry.
“Everyone should be concerned about groundwater, and we hope that our technology can make a significant impact in preserving it more efficiently,” he says.
National Driller caught up with Courtney to ask him about MyWaterWell.com and find out more about its services and exactly what benefits it can offer the groundwater industry.
Q. What’s your background/history?
A. I have been in the business of drilling water wells in Texas for over 30 years. I started out focused on residential work, but after 10 years of that, I shifted to strictly commercial and municipal work. I’ve drilled over 600 wells in the region. Over the last five years, I have been working with regulatory bodies to further our knowledge about fresh and saline groundwater interface.
Q. You created MyWaterWell, a software as a service application, for groundwater professionals. What does your software do?
A. MyWaterWell is the world’s first graphically based water well management tool. One of the most persistent challenges in managing your day-to-day business is having access to important information about your well and making sure that information is accurate.
Q. What are the software’s benefits?
A. Better record keeping is really important. In our industry, we work with our shoulders and our backs, and until now, we haven’t had the right tool to help us maintain our well information. This tool will give the people in our industry the freedom that they need to manage all of their wells, all of the time, wherever they are. With MyWaterWell’s data management capabilities, things like retrieving, reporting or robust downhole recording of data can all be easily maintained in real-time.
Q. Why is it useful for groundwater professionals?
A. Our industry specific drawing program allows any MyWaterWell user the ability to create scalable, comprehensive illustrations of a well’s construction for drafting, client approval or report completion purposes. You can draw a well in the app just as you would drill it. You can also edit your well data and drawing at any time for real-time data and communication with anyone involved in your project.
Q. How did you come up with the idea for it?
A. Like most innovation, MyWaterWell was born out of necessity. In my 30 plus years of experience, I’ve become intimately familiar with the challenges our industry faces, and it became clear to me the water industry was lacking in big data technology. But this technology was not built in Silicon Valley, it was built by a driller and pump installer that needed a solution that spoke the language. Groundwater is a very important commodity in central Texas, and San Antonio is the largest city in the country that is wholly reliant on groundwater.
Q. How do you think this type of technology will affect the industry?
A. I wish I had access to this sort of technology when I was much younger in my career. For the longest time, people generally didn’t think about where the water they get from their sink came from. They never realized that it was groundwater. Now, we’re educating people on the importance of maintaining groundwater. This has led to an increased appreciation for the work that we do as drillers and pump installers, and has earned respect for our profession.
Q. What do you foresee being the future of the industry?
A. Until now, the water well industry has been lacking big data technology. As the world becomes more reliant on technology, I think our industry will too. I also think the general public’s appreciation of our profession will continue to grow. There are also some very interesting developments coming up related to the pumping and treatment of saline water.
I’m not big on regulations, but I have grown to understand that you’ve got to have some regulation if water is going to be there for a long time in terms of purity and reliability. Regulations are here to stay and keeping well records in compliance with them will be increasingly important. That’s where MyWaterWell comes in. It gives people in our industry the freedom to focus on the task at hand. Let’s face it, knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you have, the more you can focus on proper well construction.
Q. When will your software become fully available? Where can people find it?
A. The application is fully built and is currently undergoing some routine testing for the user interface. It will be available at MyWaterWell.com in mid-to-late June 2018.
