July 14, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Russell Drilling Company- Nacogdoches, TX, USA.
Safety Focus
Part 2 of 4: The Vehicle, and Knowing Which Rules Apply to Your Operation
The vehicle is item number two that we want to cover this week, and for a lot of us it comes with a wrinkle: working on a mine property comes with its own set of standards. The moment you roll onto that site, the rulebook changes, and not by your choosing.
Here is what many contractors do not know. The Mine Act defines an operator to include independent contractors performing services or construction at a mine. That makes you an operator. MSHA has jurisdiction over your work there. You need an MSHA contractor identification number and your crew needs site-specific hazard training before boots hit the ground. Both you and the mine operator can be cited for the same violation. Jurisdiction is dictated by the project location, not by whatever set of standards you prefer (OSHA vs MSHA).
Which brings us to the vehicle standard that catches people. Under 30 CFR 56.14100, self-propelled mobile equipment to be used during a shift must be inspected by the equipment operator before it is placed in operation on that shift. MSHA applies that standard to all self-propelled equipment on mine property, and its own policy manual says so explicitly: it includes vans, Suburbans, and pickup trucks used at the mine and kept on mine property. Your service truck is included. The guy driving it does the inspection, not a mechanic back at the shop, and not once a week. Once you are in the driver seat, you are responsible for that vehicle and every part of it.
Defects affecting safety get corrected. If a defect is not corrected immediately, it must be reported to and recorded by the mine operator, and that record stays at the mine until the defect is fixed. Note that backup alarms and horns have their own standard. Off mine property, your DOT pre-trip is the requirement, and the habit is identical: the person driving it performs the inspection before it moves.
The practice worth adopting regardless of what kind of site you are on: follow the stricter of the two standards. Then it does not matter where the next job takes you.
Key Takeaways
• On mine property you are an operator under the Mine Act. Contractor ID number and site-specific training are required before you arrive, not after.
• MSHA pre-shift inspection covers your pickup, not just the rig. The operator of the equipment does the inspection, every shift.
• A safety defect not fixed immediately has to be reported and recorded, and the record stays until it is corrected.
Sources:
• MSHA: MSHA and OSHA Memorandum
Industry Update
The Supreme Court Just Tied Groundwater Pumping to a River Compact
On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court entered a final decree in Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado, ending a 13-year fight over the Rio Grande. The mechanism at the center of it should get every well professional's attention, because it is a precedent with legs.
Texas sued in 2013 arguing that groundwater pumping in southern New Mexico, below Elephant Butte Reservoir, was depleting the river before it reached the state line, in violation of the 1938 Rio Grande Compact. The settlement rests on the finding that the Rincon and Mesilla aquifers are hydrologically connected to the Rio Grande, meaning a well pumping near the river is, in effect, pumping the river. Under the decree, New Mexico must reduce groundwater depletions in the Lower Rio Grande by 18,200 acre-feet per year within ten years, with half of that achieved in the first five. Roughly 5.9 billion gallons a year, and by the state's own estimate about 5 to 7 percent of current groundwater use in that stretch.
How New Mexico gets there is the part that creates work. The state expects most of the reduction to come from buying agricultural water rights and retiring irrigated farmland, backed by more than $22 million in state funding and over $40 million in federal money. The settlement also builds out accounting, measurement, and monitoring obligations.
The precedent is the story. Courts are now willing to cap well pumping specifically to protect downstream surface deliveries under an interstate compact. Every compact-governed basin in the West is on notice, and the technical demand that follows is predictable: metering, monitoring networks, hydrogeologic modeling, and more efficient wells and distribution.
Sources:
• Office of the Governor of New Mexico: U.S. Supreme Court Approves Rio Grande Compact Settlement
Knowledge Share
Part 2 of 4: Head, Flow, and Reading a Pump Curve
Yesterday we looked at the hardware. Today we look at the language, because you cannot select a pump without it. Two numbers describe what a pump does: flow, typically how much water per minute (gpm or l/s), and head, how high it can push that water. Head is expressed in feet, which trips inexperienced people up, but it is just energy per pound of water, and feet is a convenient way to write it.
The number that actually matters is Total Dynamic Head (TDH), and it is more than just the distance to the water. TDH is everything the pump has to overcome: the vertical lift from the pumping water level to the discharge, plus the pressure you need at the top, plus the friction the water fights on its way up the drop pipe and through every elbow and valve. Skip the friction and you will undersize the pump. Skip the pressure requirement and you will hold no pressure at the tank.
Now the curve. Every pump has a performance curve showing the head it can produce across its full range of flow. Overlay on it the system curve, which shows how much head your system demands at each flow rate, and the two lines cross at exactly one place. That intersection is the duty point, and as Grundfos puts it plainly, a fixed speed pump will only operate where the pump curve intersects the system curve. You do not get to choose the operating point. The system chooses it. All you choose is the pump.
Two details worth carrying into tomorrow. In an open system, and a well is an open system, the system curve does not start at zero; it starts at the static head, because the pump has to lift water that far before it moves a single gallon anywhere. And when the water level in the well drops, the system curve moves with it and total dynamic head goes up. That is drawdown, described in pump language, and it is the whole reason tomorrow's piece exists.
What this means for your next design
• Calculate TDH, not depth. Lift + Pressure + Friction. A pump sized only on the distance to water is a pump sized wrong.
• Find the duty point where the pump curve crosses your system curve, and check that it lands in the efficient part of the curve, not out at either end.
Sources:
• Grundfos: How to Read a Pump Curve
• Grundfos: ECADEMY: Pump Selection Basics
Industry Events
Event Spotlight: South Atlantic Jubilee
July 25-27, 2026; Myrtle Beach, SC
Information and Registration: South Atlantic Jubilee
The Jubilee is one of the largest regional gatherings in the water well industry, drawing drillers, pump installers, suppliers, and manufacturers from across the Southeast to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Registration is open now.
Looking Forward-
National Water Resources Association: Western Water Seminar
August 3-6, 2026; Boise, ID
Information and Registration: NWRA: Western Water Seminar
NGWA: Darcy Lecture, Groundwater Recharge Regimes Are in Flux
August 4, 2026; Virtual Attendance, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET
Information and Registration: NGWA Event Calendar
American Ground Water Trust: Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas Groundwater Conference
August 18-19, 2026; Richmond, VA
Information and Registration: AGWT: Mid-Atlantic Conference
NGWA: Advancing Women in Groundwater, Conversations That Connect
August 27, 2026; Virtual Attendance, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET
Information and Registration: NGWA: Advancing Women in Groundwater
NGWA: Groundwater Week 2026
December 8-10, 2026; Las Vegas, NV
Information and Registration: NGWA Groundwater Week 2026
If you have a conference, symposium, workshop, or water well related event that you would like mentioned, contact us at [email protected]
Work Hard. Work Smart. Stay Safe!
