Evil Brock (intro voiceover): Most individuals live in the sunlit world of what they believe to be reality. But there is a place downhole, untouchable by most, a dark world, a place with resources not easily obtained, resources that drive civilization: the subsurface. This is the tales from the job site.

Bron Yorgundy: What the hell was that intro? Who's running The Driller Newscast these days? Good day, drilling industry, and welcome to episode 133 of The Driller Newscast. This is our third annual Halloween episode.

Wait a minute, I filmed the first one. Who filmed the second one? What hacks did you get? Obviously, it didn't pan out. You're back to the legend, Bron Yorgundy.  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: What do you mean, this is live and we can't cut it out?  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Good morning and welcome to episode 133 of the Driller Newscast, a weekly update on the news and stories impacting the drilling industry. I'm your rightful and appropriate host, Bron Yorgundy. Alright, it's our Halloween episode, and it's brought to you by Derex Drills.  

A Word From Our Sponsor – Derex Drills 

Decades of experience and dedication for innovation has made Derex one of the fastest-growing rig manufacturers in Canada. The imagineers behind the best domestic dual rotary drilling rig now offers drills to meet every need of the serious water well, geothermal and RC exploration driller. 

Thank you, Derex and team, for bringing us the news this week and reinstating the rightfully brilliant Bron Yorgundy to the Newscast. Happy Halloween, everybody. 

Bron Yorgundy: We start the newscast this week with zombie orphan wells. Next, we will discuss C-8 chemicals, those PFAS chemicals and the alarming number of groundwater contamination worldwide. This week's feature is the top impacts on the drilling and construction industry as we end 2024. But before we get into the news, let's let that safety professional Brock Yordy back in here to talk some safety. 

Tales of Construction Clowns

Brock Yordy: I guess this is the only part I get to do this week. 

For this week in safety, I want to tell you a scary story titled Tales of the Construction Clowns and Decisions That Haunt a Company’s Legacy. 

Hi, I'm Brock Yordy, OSHA 1926 authorized trainer and a student of behavioral-based safety in the construction industry. Our story starts on a Friday afternoon. There are just two hours left of a shift. It's Halloween and the crew is excited to end the shift – grab a quick shower put on their “Everyone is a driller tonight” costume and attend bar Roughneck's annual Halloween party. However, as the afternoon progresses and the crew mentally leaves the job site, clowns and clown decision-making enters. 

First, there was a slip and a trip resulting in a skinned elbow – had to be reported. Second was an overexertion injury by carrying three bags of gel. This isn't ESPN, The Ocho. Nobody cares of the tough man contest that's happening onsite. There's no room for these type of shortcuts. 

Finally, the worst situation. While tripling out, an individual forgot his hand placement and crushed his left hand, including smashing and losing his pinky and ring finger in the table. The direct cost for that injury was $48,000 with an additional indirect cost of $62,000 totaling $110,000 in that injury.  

That day resulted in losing two crew members for multiple months and lost-time work days of 110. I want you to consider the hand injury, the repetitive stress injury, the trip from hurrying across the jobsite and the low light as it was getting dark. How much does it require to recover from clowns on a job site?

We've talked many times on the Newscast about how 80% of all construction injuries are unsafe acts, not conditions. Beyond losing two valuable players, the subsequent increase in insurance will impact the opportunity to bid other projects. How many additional sales have to be generated to recover those costs to get the company back on track? Site supervisors, drillers, lead pump men, you are the ringmaster of that circus. You are responsible for every act on site and creating the best safety conditions possible. 

It is up to you to stop the circus when the clowns are out of control. I need you to consider these situations as we have more than just Halloween parties that we're rushing to as we get into the last two months of the year. Proper tools, equipment, standard operating procedures, and understanding our PPE for the job is going to lead to employees making good decisions and keeping the job site productive, safe and profitable. That pinky and ring finger don't come back. Not to mention, every time we see that individual we end up thinking about how we could have prevented that. Who could have said, stop? These are things we have to consider. I know it's not that scary of a story, until you pull those gloves off and somebody cringes and says, “I don't want to work in this industry”, and THAT is a damn nightmare. 

Be safe everybody. Happy Halloween. 

Bron Yorgundy: Thanks, Brock. Sure know how to bring everybody down. Don't worry, folks. Bron is here to lighten up the mood! Roll that feed.  

This week in the news – zombie well apocalypse.  

Who the hell is the writing staff here? Can't we talk about best pet costumes on a drilling site? 

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Nobody can hear you. You're not mic’ed up.  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Fine. Let's get on with the news this week. 

Zombie Well Apocalypse 

Bron Yorgundy: Zombie well apocalypse. Sorry, everybody. I'll just keep scaring the hell out of you.  

In the past three years, from Texas to North Dakota, from Pennsylvania to California, orphan wells have been made a major focus by the EPA and Department of Interior. This is due to the bipartisan infrastructure law, which in 2022 delivered the largest investment in tackling legacy pollution from Orphan Wells. We have heard Brock talk about this on the newscast before. It's $4.7 billion. It's wild to think that the Department of Interior has been monitoring orphan wells and fighting for money since 2009.  

As of August of 2024, $1 billion has been distributed to 21 states. This funding has plugged 8,200 orphan wells and created 7,200 jobs in the past two years. However, in August when we celebrated hitting the milestone of abandoning 8,200 wells, at the same time, stories of zombie orphan wells coming back online have been reported in Colorado, in West Virginia and, most recently, making the news in the Permian Base in West Texas.

The term “zombie well” comes from multiple pathways. First, of those 120,000 wells out there, they're releasing methane gas, a greenhouse gas. Remember, we have a greenhouse gas reduction. If we want to save the oil and gas drilling industry, we got to shut down these zombies. 

Next, pressure is exerted by nearby oil and gas operations, including injection into disposal wells, creating new head pressures to force fluids in these coming-back-to-life zombie wells to surface.  

Finally — and this is the big player that we're seeing pop up — abandoned orphan wells not utilizing best practices by operators for plugging are creating restricted micro pathways which allow, under pressure, crude and other fluids to surface. Texas Railroad Commission is seeing plenty of this right now. There's three individuals to be overseeing these lots of wells. There is an estimated $500 million required to abandon these orphan wells in Texas. 

The Department of Interiors database includes 120,000 orphan wells across 30 states. However, the United States Geological Survey estimates undocumented orphan wells to be somewhere between 310,000 and 800,000. That's a zombie hoard! We ought to be getting ahold of Rick Grimes and Carl, getting them out there to shut these wells down ASAP.  

In reality, drilling companies, there's $3.7 billion and only roughly 27 states that have taken advantage of this money. From Indiana to Michigan to Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, much of the western United States, much of the Mid-Con all have opportunities to shut in these wells, prevent those greenhouse gases from getting out and help us allow the right drilling operations to happen, including our oil and gas brethren to continue working. It's unacceptable and we need the best practices and the best companies doing this. 

Get involved. 

The Attack of The 1,000 Year C-8 Chemicals 

Bron Yorgundy: Now for some lighter news, let's talk groundwater. Yeah, and drinking water! Our next story is titled — Attack of The 1,000 years C-8 Chemicals?!

Come on staff, give us a break!  Why don't we talk about those tasty drops that you put in boring water so they have caffeine and good-tasting things? 

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: I know I'm not supposed to go off script, but Halloween's supposed to be fun!  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Fine! 

Last week, the United States Geological Survey released a report, on October 24^th, stating that 71 to 95 million Americans and the lower 48 states may rely on detectable levels of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for their drinking water. Earlier this year, the EPA set legal enforceable levels called Maximum Contaminant Levels for six types of PFAS in drinking water.

Where do these polyfluoroalkyl substances come from? They were initially designed for military-grade paint for tanks in World War II, followed by the adoption of these eight carbon-chain chemicals being used for waterproofing and Teflon.

You mean my Bacon's under attack too?  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew) 

Bron Yorgundy:  Stain-resistant fabrics, carpets, and fast food containers. Hey, at least they didn't say Sex Panther, my favorite cologne, has PFAS in it.  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: You think that does too? Can we have something happy?  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Fine!  

The World's Economic Forum states the estimated cost to society for PFAS contamination and impacts is $17.5 trillion annually. The PFAS chemical industry produces $4 billion of revenue a year. That's a year! These chemicals take over a thousand years to degrade on their own. The states with the largest populations relying on public water supplies, with potentially contaminated groundwater sources are Florida and California. Consider that the three most house seat states in the country, five days from election day, California, Florida, Texas, Texas as a trinity and the Edwards, they're deep. They also perch at one point. Texas has got a great groundwater protection program out there despite all of the other drilling that's going on but I guarantee there's also PFAS in Texas groundwater.

States with private wells impacted by this rank as Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. They have the largest populations relying on potentially contaminated groundwater. Outside of the United States, 69% of the worldwide water supplies surpass safe enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS.  

Mind you, to date no level of PFAS consumption is safe. You can see the entire shakeup with a World Health organization on their data being skewed by chemical companies. You want a scary movie to be watching this Halloween? Go to Netflix and watch Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo, the Robert Bilott story. That's a scary story. It starts in Parkersburg, West Virginia though those chemicals were made initially by 3M in Minnesota. 

When these lawsuits are done, it's going to quadruple what the big tobacco settlements were. This is a big deal. Next time somebody says, “Man, I really love this old-school waterproofer” or “This is my favorite frying pan”, I want you to consider the implications of that. It's very important.  

Maybe our next stories will bring us up.  

False Feature Story – Cute Pets in Costume on Jobsites 

Bron Yorgundy: For our feature this week, we're going to show you cute pets in costumes, drinking water with tasty water drops.

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: No, you're just messing with me?

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: Listen, the audience has had enough stress today. We're forcing them to sneak into their children's bedrooms and stress-eat all this candy. Tonight we start with zombie wells and we talk about forever chemicals and my favorite cologne, sex Panther?

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: You know you're not on mic. They can't hear you.  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: What? Chelsea just called down and she won't renew my contract for next year?!!? You’re going to go back to that silly dodgeball character and that baseball guy?  

Moving on, our feature this week: the things impacting the industry. That's supposed to be spooky, right?  

(Inaudible talking off camera by film crew)  

Bron Yorgundy: (spooky voice) The things impacting the industry. Number one: climate impacts.

REAL Feature: The Things Impacting the Industry

As of today, there have been 24 confirmed weather climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion in the United States. This includes 17 severe storms, four tropical cyclone events, wildfires, multiple winter storms. These events resulted in 418 deaths to date. From 1980 to 2023, the United States averaged 8.5 events. However, in the past five years, if you calculate the average, it has been 20.4 events.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) compiled this report titled US Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters 2024. It can be found at Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). 

I want you to consider the physical impacts to projects, property, and equipment. It's what we talk about. Now, outside of the people living in those areas, consider your people, your teams and the downtime while these areas recover. We're busy helping them recover. When the water is gone and the volunteering's done and it's time to get back to work, we need to understand that basing employee family-sustaining wages on 50- to 60-hour work weeks is no longer suitable with 20.5 extreme weather events in the United States. And when we consider that we are tipping past that 1.5 degrees Celsius Degree mark, how do we handle this? How do we take care of our people?

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adopting smarter building practices are just two pieces. As we do this and hit our 2030, 2040, and 2050 goals, our way of work has to change. From extreme heat to severe thunder and lightning to extreme cold and these category-five hurricanes, we need to adapt.  

Next, the drilling industry, listen up: groundwater is more important to us now than ever. And why I say drilling industry is because those people doing caissons and micro piles, ground-source geothermal, cathodic wells, water well drilling, and dewatering and injection wells: On November 1^st (tomorrow) the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) — Brock Yordy has talked about that before — will be discussing America's groundwater challenges. So far in the past few months, the PCAST has discussed groundwater depletion, use and management, emerging contaminants, and water quality requirements for aquifer storage and recovery wells, and how we handle managing aquifer recharge (MAR). NGWA has had some great discussions on that. They've also gotten involved with PCAST, and we love that. Thank you, NGWA. That's why Brock Yordy is a proud member of the NGWA; maybe Bron Yorgundy will sign up, too.

We need to consider emerging contaminants, such as Gen X and PFAS, and keep them in constant consideration as we look at our groundwater monitoring, what we have for quality and quantity. And beyond that, as we do stormwater capture, what's the quality with the myriad of contaminants to be removed and how do we monitor that? As you consider atmospheric rivers coming through the Western United States and people saying, “Why didn't we just capture it all?” It's no different than us having a small mud cleaning system and we're trying to put 400 gallons a minute across it. What happens? A lot of it ends up on the ground.

Bron sounded like Brock there for a second.  

But seriously, the impact of being able to measure, monitor and test stormwater or reuse water, is important to us in being able to store this back in the ground and make it better. And that's the final piece to PCAST, right now in aquifer depletion, is, as we clean water from water treatment facilities, how is it monitored? What contaminants are still in it? 

This PCAST event, like the previous, will be in collaboration to better understand the United States water quantity, including what reserves we have in the groundwater. If there's a fear of how groundwater drilling or simply how drilling will be regulated more, when we start ignoring the importance of the groundwater we’re drilling through that’s an issue. From the December 23rd strategic groundwater reserve discussion on PCAST, to the ones they've had in May, July, and September, to this new one in November. This is something we need to be paying attention to. Clean water — it is bipartisan. Clean water is everybody's responsibility to keep clean. 

The final impact is, how do we collaborate with all of America and industry? We are five days from election day with a lot of questions about how Republicans or Democrats will handle the next four years. There are a lot of house seats, all of them up for reelection. There are lots for us to consider and I need us as an industry to look for those champions that want to have the right oversight to help us protect groundwater, to protect farmers, to continue what we're doing in the right direction. Regardless of who ends up being commander in chief, the legislative branch drives our country.  

And the great thing about being in the drilling industry is that we have the awesome opportunity to provide resources to progress civilization. Regardless if you're red or blue, we are all Americans in clean water, clean air, and a healthy mother nature — which is vital, not only to this election day, but for all the future election days. The United States is 248 years old. That's less than 5% of the 5,000-year written history of humanity. We have to think about this.

Regardless of how the next few weeks turn out, drilling boreholes has been the game-changer in the survival of humans. From the oldest wells to the discovery of precious metals on to unlocking energy from the subsurface. We have a job to continue to progress humanity. 

When you step into the ballot box, have your research done, and know the individuals who fight for our opportunity to keep on drilling. Consider the silly discussions we've had on repealing the IRA. Not only does that impact ground-source geothermal drilling, but caissons and pilings for wind infrastructure, solar farms — lots of drillers involved there — and the improvement to the electrical grid. But it also impacts our farmers and our irrigation wells who are creating biofuels that are driven through the IRA. Re-appropriating funds from the federal infrastructure law undermines opportunities for geotechnical and environmental drilling and updating our a-hundred-plus-year-old water and utility infrastructure.

No one's taking away the right of a private water well, no one's taking our rights from clean natural gas. The EPA doesn't need to be deregulated. It is not overreaching to prevent drilling, but it is there to enforce the law built by the legislative branch when they have time to build it. Forcing the bad to actors to conform with best practices,  OSHA and all of their policymaking, the new heat rules, all the individuals in 2022 — 40 of them that died in trench collapses... OSHA's construction focus doesn't want you to pay more reliability insurance or enforcement. They want to protect the 8.25 million Americans who work in construction and generate almost $2 trillion worth of business.

We need more people in construction and drilling. We need more advancement in construction and drilling technologies. We can't do that while we're divided. Spindletop in the 1900’s, all of the technology that came from Spindletop didn't come from Pennsylvania. It came from Europe. We didn't advance our drilling industry at that time because we were fighting amongst ourselves. We're all Americans. It's important that we do our part and advocate for our industry and for Mother Nature, above all else. Go out and vote. Thanks.  

Bron Yorgundy: I want to do that silly Tales from the Job Site outro. We're not doing that voiceover thing again.  

 (Inaudible talking off camera by film crew) 

Bron Yorgundy: Good.

Evil Brock (Voiceover Bron didn’t want to happen): The subsurface resources are always there, waiting for us to drill in to find them. The subsurface is ready to present danger and challenges to all who dare enter. Until next time, be safe and enjoy shallow holes and easy downhole conditions.

Bron Yorgundy: Nailed it. That's why you'll have Bron Yorgundy back year.  

Brock Yordy: Thank you for joining us for episode 133 of The Driller Newscast. Big thank you to Derex Drills for helping us bring the news. I'm sure Derex has the light on at a shop. Knock on the door, get some candy, throw some eggs to that building. You do that in Canada, right? Not sure. Have a happy Halloween, everybody, and a safe and productive start to November 2024.  

The Race to Vegas is on. The Driller team will see you December 10 in Las Vegas for a great conference of collaboration and choosing our industry. Thanks, everybody. Happy Halloween.