July 16, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Russell Drilling Company- Nacogdoches, TX, USA.
Safety Focus
Part 4 of 4: Arriving Ready
We have checked our tools, inspected our vehicles, and planned our trip accordingly. Now it is time to make sure that we are prepared on the site. Under 29 CFR 1926.50(b), “provisions shall be made prior to commencement of the project for prompt medical attention in case of serious injury”. Prior to commencement. The plan is a precondition of starting work, not a thing you sort out when someone is already hurt.
Here is the number that should reshape how you staff a remote job. OSHA interprets reasonably accessible medical care to mean emergency care available within 3 to 4 minutes, an interpretation upheld by the Review Commission and by federal courts, and it applies where serious injuries like falls, electrocution, or amputation are possible. Now, ask how far your rig is from a hospital. If the answer is more than a few minutes, and it almost always is, then the standard requires a person on site with a valid first aid certificate. Not a nice-to-have. A requirement, and it applies regardless of how many people are on the crew.
The rest of the standard reads like a checklist. First aid supplies have to be easily accessible, kept in a weatherproof container with sealed packages, and checked before the kit goes out on each job and at least weekly on the job. You must provide either equipment for prompt transportation of an injured person or a communication system for contacting an ambulance. Emergency phone numbers get posted prominently.
And one provision written for exactly the environments and locations we work in: if your communication system does not automatically give the 911 dispatcher your latitude and longitude, you must post the coordinates or other location information that actually tells a dispatcher where you are. Think about that on a lease road with no address. Somebody is on the phone, panicking, and the only thing standing between your hand and an ambulance is whether someone wrote the coordinates on the board that morning. Be prepared and make sure this is figured out and shared prior to starting work.
Key Takeaways
• Plans for prompt medical attention are required BEFORE the project starts. Confirm the hospital, the route, and the drive time during planning.
• If emergency care is more than 3 to 4 minutes away, you must have someone on site with a valid first aid certificate. On a remote well site, that is nearly always.
• Post the coordinates. If your phone does not hand 911 your location automatically, the latitude and longitude have to be posted at the site.
Sources:
Industry Update
Washington Is Moving to Write Groundwater Out of Federal Clean Water Jurisdiction
A quieter story, but one that defines the ground you operate on. EPA and the Army Corps have proposed a rewrite of the definition of "waters of the United States," the term that sets the reach of the Clean Water Act. Buried in it is a provision that matters to this industry: an explicit exclusion for groundwater, including groundwater drained through subsurface drainage systems.
This is codification, not revolution. The agencies have long treated groundwater as outside Clean Water Act jurisdiction on the theory that Congress left groundwater to the states, but that understanding has never actually been written into the regulation. The proposed rule would put it in the text, alongside changes implementing the Supreme Court's 2023 Sackett decision, which narrowed federal jurisdiction to relatively permanent surface waters and wetlands with a continuous surface connection.
Worth being precise about the status: this is still a proposal. The comment period closed January 5 with roughly 11,000 comments filed, and a final rule has not issued. Do not plan around it as settled law.
If it lands as proposed, the effect on well professionals is clarity rather than change. Your federal exposure under the Clean Water Act stays narrow, and your real obligations remain where they have always been: state well construction codes, groundwater appropriation rules, and local health and zoning ordinances. Which points at the theme running through all four of this week's updates. PFAS limits lapsing to state law, a compact settlement putting New Mexico in charge of its own wells, California rewriting its own groundwater list, and now the federal government formally handing groundwater to the states. The action is at the state level. Know your state cold.
Sources:
• U.S. EPA: Waters of the United States
• Federal Register: Updated Definition of Waters of the United States (proposed rule)
Knowledge Share
Part 4 of 4: What Keeps It Alive
Three things will permanently damage submersible pump systems: heat, hydraulic shock, and electrical abuse. Each is preventable, and each traces back to a decision made during installation.
Start with the check valve: It is strongly recommended that you use only positive-sealing check valves. Not a swing check. Not a valve someone drilled a hole in to let the column drain back, and not a drain-back type. Remember that with no check valve, or a leaking one, the column of water in the drop pipe runs back down through the pump and spins it backwards, and a restart during that backspin can twist off a shaft or a coupling. The same missing valve lets the pump start against zero head, which can drive the impeller assembly upward into upthrust. And if the lowest check valve sits more than 30 feet above the standing water level, or a lower valve leaks while the one above it holds, a vacuum forms in the column. On the next start, water fills that void at high velocity and slams into the closed valve. That is water hammer, and it splits pipe, breaks joints, and destroys pumps.
Now, for cooling: Motors are designed to run with water flowing past them, and standard motors are typically rated for water up to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. If the installation cannot deliver the minimum flow rate over the motor, a flow inducer sleeve (shroud) is required, not suggested.
Finally the electrical: Single-phase three-wire motors require a correctly matched control box; running without one, or with the wrong one, causes motor failure and voids the warranty. Sand, lightning damage, and non-approved overload protection void it too. But wiring, grounding, and overload protection are the work of a qualified professional under national and local codes, and nothing here licenses anyone to do that work themselves. Understand the system so you can specify it, inspect it, and ask the right questions. Then, if you are not certified, call in someone who is to complete the work.
What to check before you order
• Confirm the check valve is positive-sealing, and confirm the lowest one is in the right position in the string.
• Run the cooling flow math at your actual setting depth and casing diameter. If it does not meet the minimum, the flow-sleeve/shroud is not optional.
• Match the control box to the motor exactly, and leave the electrical work to a licensed professional working to your local code.
Sources:
• Franklin Electric: AIM Manual (Application, Installation, Maintenance)
Industry Events
Event Spotlight: South Atlantic Jubilee
July 25-27, 2026; Myrtle Beach, SC
Information and Registration: South Atlantic Jubilee
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!
