This week, host and drilling expert Brock Yordy takes a question from Joe, who wonders about bentonite/polymer fluids breaking down downhole. It’s Ask Brock 217. 

Yordy says it depends, but sometime it’s a sign of issues that should give you pause. 

“We need to be that skeptical driller at that point and understand that the dry cleaner down the street, the lead fuel depot that was there — what is hitting our fluids and starting to break them down? Because there’s a lot more going on. … We don’t want to take whatever that bad X factor is through that confining layer into a good groundwater source.”

Click the video to hear more.