August 13, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Mount Sopris Instruments- Denver, CO, USA
Safety Focus
Part 4 of 4: Extension Cords and Power Tools- Implement
Three days of inspecting and testing only matter if something actually happens to the cords and tools that fail. Today we will cover what should actually be done.
Start with the rule that closes the loop. OSHA states plainly that the employer shall not make available, or permit employees to use, any equipment that has not met the program's requirements. A cord that failed and went back in the dog house or tool box is a violation whether or not anyone plugs it in. Getting it out of circulation is the employer's obligation, not the judgment call.
A damaged cord does not automatically go in the dumpster. OSHA has said in writing that extension cords used in construction may be repaired, provided the repair returns the cord to the approved condition required by 1926.403(a). Replacing a damaged plug end with a proper cord cap is a legitimate repair when it is done correctly.
What is not legitimate is a mediocre fix that does not get the condition back to OSHA approval. Flexible cords are to be used only in continuous lengths without splice or tape. OSHA has specifically addressed electrical tape: taping over a worn or frayed cord does not bring it back into compliance under the OSHA standard. Tape may cover superficial jacket scuffing where nothing beneath the jacket is damaged, but it does not repair a frayed cord. Worth noting that MSHA takes a different position on tape, which is one more reason to know which regulations apply to the job location.
The standing rule writes itself. If the damage is a superficial jacket abrasion, it can be dressed. If the cord is worn, frayed, cut into the insulation, or crushed, it comes out of service, and it either goes to a qualified person for a proper repair and retest, or it gets cut up so nobody can mistakenly use it. Cutting the plug off a dead cord is the cheapest insurance.
The program requires a designated competent person, so make sure you have that person in place. That person has the authority and obligation to fail a cord or a tool and to sign the quarterly test record. They should pair that with the color of the quarter so anyone on site can see at a glance whether the cord in their hand is current.
Testing, repairing, and returning electrical equipment to an approved condition is qualified work. Teach your crew to recognize and remove bad equipment. Leave the repair itself to a qualified person and to your local code.
Sources:
Industry Update
Puerto Rico Begins Water Rationing as Drought Deepens
Rotating water outages started in Puerto Rico on August 7, affecting tens of thousands of customers served by the badly depleted Carraizo reservoir. Seven municipalities including San Juan were in the first round, with customers facing alternating service on roughly 48-hour cycles. July was San Juan's driest month on record, and close to 68 percent of the island is in drought.
This is a domestic water supply emergency, not a forecast, and the groundwater implications follow a predictable order.
• First comes restoring capacity that already exists: rehabilitating existing municipal wells, replacing pumps and motors, and yield testing to find out what the existing wells can actually deliver.
• Then temporary systems: portable pumping, storage, and tanker filling infrastructure for hospitals, hotels, industrial facilities, and emergency management.
• New production wells come last, because they take the longest when the need is immediate.
Why it matters beyond the island: this is the sequence any drought-stressed utility follows, and it is the same one playing out in the Plains right now. When a system runs short, the fastest gallons come from wells that are already drilled and underperforming, not from new ones. For contractors, that means the diagnostic and rehabilitation side of the business is where emergency money moves first.
The discipline point stays the same one we have made about drought work all summer. Falling production does not automatically justify deepening or replacement. Measure static level, pumping level, available submergence, specific capacity, and recovery, and check pump and screen condition before recommending anything.
Sources:
Knowledge Share
Part 4 of 4: Bentonite- The Holdbacks
We close the week on the limits, because the same properties that make bentonite useful are the ones that cause trouble when nobody is paying attention.
The big one for water well work is the filter cake. All week we have called it a benefit, and while you are drilling it is. That thin low-permeability skin is what holds an unconsolidated hole open and keeps fluid from bleeding into the formation. But the moment you finish drilling, that same skin sits between your screen and the aquifer you are trying to produce. It does not disappear on its own. If development does not remove the wall cake and the bentonite that invaded the formation face, you have permanently reduced the specific capacity of the well you just built. A well can be drilled perfectly and still underperform because the cake was never broken down.
That is why the drilling decision and the development plan belong together. Heavier mud can make the drilling easier and at the same time make the development harder. Thinner mud is more work in the hole and less work afterward. Contractors who think about that trade before they mix, rather than after they set screen, build better wells.
The other holdbacks are shorter.
• Over-gelling. More clay is not necessarily better. Excess viscosity slows penetration, taxes the pump, and thickens the wall cake you will have to remove later.
• Water chemistry, from yesterday. Hard or saline make-up water can take the yield out of good clay before it ever reaches the hole.
• Temperature. Sodium bentonite loses performance as downhole temperatures climb, which is why high-temperature work requires different products.
• Formation sensitivity. In a reactive shale or a delicate producing zone, standard gel is not always the right answer, and a polymer or a blended system may serve better.
What this means for your next design: Bentonite is a tool with a defined job. Match the clay and the make-up water to the formation, then plan the proper and thorough development that removes what you put in. For the deeper treatment, Roscoe Moss’s Handbook of Ground Water Development and Driscoll's Groundwater and Wells both cover mud program and development in detail, and they are worth owning.
Sources:
• Wyoming State Geological Survey: Wyoming Bentonite
• Journal of King Saud University, Engineering Sciences: Improving Local Bentonite Performance for Drilling Fluids Applications
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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