August 12, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Mount Sopris Instruments- Denver, CO, USA
Safety Focus
Part 3 of 4: Extension Cords and Power Tools- Apply
Yesterday we discussed how to inspect and identify damaged cords. Today we will discuss exactly how the program should work.
Under an assured equipment grounding conductor program, OSHA requires two tests on all cord sets, on receptacles that are not part of the permanent wiring, and on cord- and plug-connected equipment required to be grounded. First, a continuity test: every equipment grounding conductor has to be electrically continuous. Second, a terminal connection test, confirming that the grounding conductor is landed on its proper terminal at receptacles and cord plugs.
The schedule is where crews slip. Those tests are required before first use, after any repair and before the item goes back in service, after any incident that could have caused damage and before returning it to use, and at intervals not exceeding three months. The daily visual inspection runs alongside all of it, every day.
Now the important part that is often skipped: the recording. OSHA requires the tests to be recorded, and the record has to identify each receptacle, cord set, and piece of cord- and plug-connected equipment that passed, and show the last date tested or the interval for which it was tested. It can be kept by logs, color coding, or other effective means. It stays in force until replaced by a more current record, and it has to be available on the jobsite for OSHA and for any affected employee.
Read that closely, because it answers the question most crews ask. The record lists what passed. There is no required list of failures, because anything that fails does not go back to work in the first place. Color-coded tape or tags rotated by quarter is the common field method, and OSHA has confirmed in writing that color-coding devices are acceptable for this purpose.
The program also needs a written description available at the jobsite and at least one designated competent person to run it.
One jurisdiction note, because it matters if you work on a pit or quarry. On mine property MSHA governs, and it is a different framework. Under 30 CFR 56.12028 for surface metal and nonmetal mines, and 57.12028 underground, continuity and resistance of grounding systems are tested after installation, repair, and modification, and annually thereafter, and what gets recorded is the resistance measured, not a pass list. MSHA's program policy manual is explicit that grounding conductors in cords supplying power to tools and portable equipment must be tested, with exceptions for double-insulated tools and circuits protected by ground-fault protection that trips at 5 milliamperes or less.
Sources:
• MSHA: Program Policy Manual, Volume IV
Industry Update
WRDA 2026 Clears Both Committees, With the SRF Money Attached
The bill that funds a great deal of municipal well work just moved, and this year it carries something extra.
The Water Resources Development Act of 2026 cleared both chambers' committees in July. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved H.R. 9497 on July 14, reporting it out 66 to 0, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously approved its version, S. 4949, in mid-July. Both now await floor consideration.
The reason this one matters more than a normal WRDA is the Senate version. Because EPW holds jurisdiction over EPA programs, its bill folds in reauthorization of the State Revolving Funds, which are the pipes most municipal water money actually flows through. The Senate bill would authorize 16.5 billion dollars for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund across fiscal years 2027 through 2030, starting at 3.75 billion in 2027 and stepping up 250 million a year to 4.5 billion in 2030. The Clean Water SRF would get 14 billion over the same period, and WIFIA would be reauthorized as well. The Senate bill also makes lead service line removal and emerging contaminants such as PFAS eligible for SRF loans.
Why it matters: SRF dollars are what pay for new and replacement municipal wells, rehabilitation, treatment, and small-system improvements. These programs were last reauthorized in the 2021 infrastructure law, and letting them lapse would squeeze the funding source behind a large share of public water work.
The honest caveat is that this is authorization, not appropriation, and committee passage is not law. Neither bill has reached a floor vote. If both chambers pass their versions, the two committees are expected to reconcile the differences over the fall, with a final bill possible by year's end. Track it, but do not bid against it.
Sources:
• U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works: EPW Committee Announces Markup of the Water Resources Development Act of 2026
• ASCE Infrastructure Report Card: WRDA 2026 Bills Advance in House and Senate Committees
Knowledge Share
Part 3 of 4: Bentonite- What Affects Hydration
Everything we covered on Monday and Tuesday depends on one exchange: sodium pulling water in between the plates. Your make-up water decides whether that exchange happens at all.
The problem is competition. Calcium and magnesium, the dissolved minerals that make water hard, will trade places with the sodium sitting between those plates. Calcium binds the plates together far more tightly than sodium does, so the stack never opens. Trade guidance puts the working ceiling for calcium hardness somewhere between about 100 and 120 parts per million. Above that, yield falls off, the clay flocculates, and it settles out instead of staying in suspension. You paid for a hundred sacks of viscosity and got sixty.
Salt does its own damage. Chlorides in the range of 500 to 1,000 ppm and up begin to suppress swelling, and the closer make-up water gets to seawater, the closer standard bentonite comes to useless. That is why brackish or coastal water calls for either a different clay or a viscosifier formulated for saline water rather than standard Wyoming gel.
The fix is old and cheap: soda ash, sodium carbonate, added to the make-up water before the bentonite. It precipitates calcium out as insoluble carbonate and brings pH up into the 8.5 to 9.5 band where the clay yields best. Baroid's field guidance and the other major suppliers all agree on sequence: soda ash into the water first, then the clay. Reverse that and you are treating hardness with the clay already in the mix, which is an expensive way to get a worse fluid.
A field detail worth carrying: if you add soda ash and the pH does not move, that does not mean it is not working. Soda ash satisfies the hardness first and raises pH after. Flat pH means there is more calcium in that water than you have soda ash in the mix.
Two more variables quietly cost people yield. Time, because bentonite needs real hydration time and vigorous agitation, commonly on the order of 20 to 30 minutes, to reach full yield. And temperature, because cold water hydrates slowly. The same mix that comes up fast on a July afternoon in Texas will lag badly on a 45 degree morning in Montana.
What to fix before you mix: Test the make-up water for hardness and pH before the first sack goes in the hopper. Hardness and pH strips cost almost nothing and they tell you whether you are about to waste a pallet of clay.
Sources:
• The Driller: Clearing Up Questions about Soda Ash, Make-Up Water
• The Driller: Fluid Properties, Components Key to Drilling Jobs
Industry Events
AGWT: Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas Groundwater Conference
August 18 to 19, 2026 · Richmond, VA
Information and Registration: AGWT Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas Groundwater Conference
AWWA: Water Infrastructure Conference and Exposition
August 30 to September 2, 2026 · Indianapolis, IN
Information and Registration: AWWA Water Infrastructure Conference
IAH: 53rd World Groundwater Congress
September 14 to 18, 2026 · Budapest, Hungary
Information and Registration: IAH 2026 World Groundwater Congress
NGWA: Groundwater Week 2026
December 8 to 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]
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