Drillers know they make an impact, but that doesn’t usually mean helping to supply water for hundreds of thousands of people. Steven Bryan sensed the scope of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District project when he got the call. Working the project, which involves several 24-inch wells that will supply a swath of central Utah, only confirmed the impact.
In a perfect world, drilling fluids for each project would have exactly the right properties for the job at hand and the work would go as planned. But, sometimes, changing conditions downhole—e.g., shale, rock, sand or salt—require further modification in water loss properties, rheology control or viscosity modification.
If you are a currently licensed well driller in any state, I recommend that you keep it current and active even if you retire. You may be able to contract as the licensed driller for a company or unlicensed driller until he/she/they can get licensed. I am a licensed well drilling contractor in Arizona, North Carolina and Virginia, even though I haven’t physically operated a drill in several years.
Several years ago, I wrote an article about drop pipe: the pipe that connects to a submersible pump and carries the well water to the well head. In that article, I focused on plastic drop pipe, both rigid PVC and semi-flexible HDPE (poly pipe), describing the pros and cons of each and the load bearing capacity of the various sizes.
Having discussed my experience with different well screen designs in former columns, if you get the idea I’m a proponent of stainless steel or bronze wire wound screens, you are right. Actually, I’m not sure bronze or brass screens are available anymore. I have not seen a new one in a lot of years. In my opinion, that is OK. Stainless steel works very well, at least in the waters we encounter here in the Midwest.
I was visiting with a pump contractor a few weeks ago and was interested to learn that his business has nearly doubled this year over last year. I asked why he thought it was doing so well; was it pent up demand after four years of a tough economy, the loss of a competitor or something else?