October 19, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of- Roscoe Moss Company- Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Safety Focus
Part 1 of 4: Heat and Cold Stress
In 2024, 48 U.S. workers died from exposure to environmental heat, and temperature extremes killed 53 in all, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last week we covered cold water. Water is not the only temperature hazard on a rig site. Air temperature, wind, and wet clothing can hurt a crew standing on dry ground.
Heat drives most of these deaths. From 2012 to 2021, an average of 45 American workers a year died from exposure to temperature extremes, and environmental heat accounted for most of them every year. From 2011 to 2020, 32.3 percent of workplace deaths from extreme heat were in construction and extraction occupations. That is our side of the business.
Cold accounts for far fewer deaths, but it is still a recognized hazard. OSHA puts it simply: cold stress drives down skin temperature, and eventually the body’s internal temperature. Wind speeds up that heat loss, and so does "wetness or dampness, even from body sweat." Mud, wash water, development, and test pumping could very easily get a drilling crew wet, so the wet-clothing problem comes built in.
Late October is a crossover month. Depending on where you work, a crew can still face afternoon heat in Arizona or Texas, or the first hard cold up north. This week leans toward cold, because that is where most crews are headed, but heat stays in the conversation.
This week:
• Tuesday: the warning signs of heat illness and cold illness
• Wednesday: the controls that keep a crew working
• Thursday: turning it into a seasonal work/rest plan
Key Takeaways
• Temperature extremes killed 53 U.S. workers in 2024; heat caused 48 of those deaths (BLS).
• Construction and extraction occupations accounted for about a third of extreme-heat workplace deaths from 2011 to 2020.
• Wind and wet clothing pull heat from the body faster, and drilling keeps crews wet.
Sources:
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Fatal Occupational Injuries by Event, 2024 (Table A-9)
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Fire and Ice: What Do We Know about Jobs Involving Exposure to Outdoor Elements?
• OSHA: Cold Stress
Knowledge Share
Part 1 of 4: Domain 1 Review
A 2019 USGS study estimates about 40 million people in the United States drink from domestic wells. Every one of those wells, and every municipal well field, runs on the rules we have covered over the last eight weeks. This week closes Domain 1, Hydrogeology and Aquifer Dynamics, with a review and a self-check before Domain 2, Well Design and Metallurgy, starts next Monday.
Here are the five ideas that tie Domain 1 together:
• Water moves from high head to low head through pores and fractures. Darcy’s law and hydraulic conductivity, or K, describe how easily it moves (Week 2).
• An aquifer transmits and stores water. Transmissivity, or T, is K times the saturated thickness. Storativity (S) and specific yield (Sy) describe how much water comes out of storage as the head drops (Week 3).
• Pumping makes a cone of depression. It keeps spreading until the well captures enough water, from added recharge or reduced natural discharge, to balance the pumping. Boundaries reshape it: a recharge boundary slows the drawdown, and a barrier boundary speeds it up (Weeks 4, 5, and 7).
• A pumping test is how you measure all of it, and a test is only as good as its design (Weeks 6 and 7).
• You cannot design what you cannot picture, and every well’s water comes from somewhere: storage, water that would have discharged to a stream, or the stream itself (Weeks 8 and 9).
Get a notebook out this week. The Week 1 test still applies: if you cannot say each of these ideas in one sentence to your helper, go back to that week and reread it. Tomorrow, every Domain 1 formula goes on one page.
What this means for your operation
• Write the five ideas in your own words, one sentence each.
• Mark any you cannot explain without looking, and revisit that week before Thursday’s self-quiz. Remember, we are covering each of these topics with the intention to help you pass you licensing tests.
Sources:
Recommended Print References:
• Hydraulics of Wells: American Society of Civil Engineers
• Handbook of Ground Water Development- Roscoe Moss Company
• Groundwater & Wells, Third Edition- Edited by Robert J. Sterrett, Johnson Screens
Vendor Directory
Premium Vendors-
Become a Premium or Plus vendor and increase your exposure. Claim your company and upgrade or list your company at https://waterwellresource.com/become-a-listed-vendor/
Basic Vendors-
Work Hard. Work Smart. Stay Safe!
