ETTL News & Views
Volume 12 • Spring 2004 Newsletter
The new electronic version of ETTL's Newsletter … Keeping you up to date on
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Installing Monitoring Wells
to Track Down the Source
of Ground-Water Contaminants

A CONTRACT DRILLING PROJECT

During a period of some several months, ETTL's drilling crews have installed a number of monitoring wells at a site in a large suburban area. The need for the wells had become apparent when solvents were found in the ground-water beneath the site, presenting the property owner with a need to determine where they had originated; for his previous operations on the site had made use of no such contaminants. ETTL's drilling department was contacted and asked to install monitoring wells at selected locations about the site, especially in up-gradient ground-water locations near the property limits.

In the photos below, an ETTL drilling crew is using "Big Red" (as our drilling staff refer to our largest unit, a Mobile B-5500 multi-purpose top-drive drilling rig) to install a 35 ft deep well, using an 8 in. auger. An ETTL supply truck is alongside. In the center view, the well, comprised of 2 in. PVC piping, is being "sanded in" (surrounded with a protective layer of sand in the center of the hollow-stem auger, as the latter is gradually withdrawn). At right the well is being readied to be completed at ground level.

Next, the rig is pulled forward, and the cuttings, which could be contaminated, are loaded into drums for subsequent removal to a landfill (see photo at left below).

The final installation step is to put a protective concrete pad in place. Senior driller Doug Hinds, leveling the form for a 4x4 ft pad (at center, below) told us that similar pads are installed to protect all of the monitoring wells we install in the various states we serve (Louisiana's regulations call for 6x6 ft pads). A bolted cover, cemented in place above the well, provides a flush mount for needed access. The pad is being completed at right, below.

Detailed information on our web site describes ETTL's comprehensive monitoring well installation, maintenance, remedial and other services.

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