August 10, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Mount Sopris Instruments- Denver, CO, USA
Safety Focus
Part 1 of 4: Extension Cords and Power Tools- Why It Matters
Electrocution is one of OSHA's Focus Four, the small group of hazards responsible for most construction deaths. Since 2011, construction has recorded more than 50 fatal and more than 300 nonfatal electrical injuries every year.
Here is the part to keep in mind. It is not only electricians that are killed by electricity. In CPWR's analysis of federal fatality data for 2008 through 2010, there were 87 electrocution deaths among electrical workers and 165 among non-electrical workers: helpers, ironworkers, roofers, mechanics. Two out of three were people whose job title had nothing to do with wiring.
OSHA does not leave this one to judgment. On construction sites, 29 CFR 1926.404(b)(1) gives an employer exactly two choices for cord sets, temporary receptacles, and cord- and plug-connected equipment: ground-fault circuit interrupters, or an assured equipment grounding conductor program. There is no third path where you look at the cord and assume it will be okay.
This week we work through that second option, the AEGCP, because it is the one built on inspection and records, and it is the one crews get cited for. Tomorrow: what a bad cord and a bad tool actually look like. Wednesday: the daily inspection, the two required tests, and how you record a pass. Thursday: what happens to the ones that fail, and how you turn it into a crew standard.
One jurisdiction note before we start. OSHA governs construction and general industry. On mine property, MSHA governs under its own standards, which we will cover Wednesday. NIOSH researches and recommends but does not write enforceable standards.
Sources:
Industry Update
EPA Opens Comment on New Drinking Water Monitoring Rule, Deadline August 31
The EPA has proposed the sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, and the comment window closes at the end of this month.
UCMR 6 would require public water systems to collect national occurrence data on 30 contaminants that carry no federal drinking water standard today: seven ultrashort organofluorine compounds including certain PFAS, three pesticide metabolites, 13 semivolatile organic compounds, and seven purgeable organic compounds. The monitoring period would run from January 2028 through December 2030.
Who has to sample matters for anyone serving small systems. All community and non-transient non-community water systems serving 3,300 or more people would monitor, along with a representative sample of 800 systems serving fewer than 3,300. Cost splits by size: systems serving more than 10,000 people pay their own analytical costs, while EPA covers analytical costs for systems serving 10,000 or fewer.
EPA also declined a petition from the governors of seven states to add microplastics to the list, citing the lack of a validated test method.
Why it matters: UCMR data is how unregulated contaminants become regulated ones. The federal standards for PFOA and PFOS came directly out of occurrence data gathered in earlier UCMR cycles. Whatever turns up in this round becomes the evidentiary base for the next rulemaking, and for groundwater-supplied systems that path runs through source characterization, wellhead sampling, monitoring wells, and eventually treatment or replacement-source work.
Two identical public webinars run August 11 and 12. Comments are due August 31 under docket EPA-HQ-OW-2023-0469.
Sources:
Knowledge Share
Part 1 of 4: Bentonite- What It Is and Where It Comes From
Just about every driller has thrown a sack of gel into the mud system. It is likely that very few have stopped to consider that they are mixing volcanic ash that fell into a Cretaceous sea.
Bentonite is any natural material composed dominantly of clay minerals in the smectite group. The Wyoming material most of us use is sodium montmorillonite, a hydrous silicate of alumina. It began as volcanic ash, blown east from eruptions to the west and settled into the shallow inland seaway that covered the region during the Cretaceous, roughly 145 to 66 million years ago. Sitting in that seawater, the ash altered to clay, and the sodium in the water became part of the mineral. That sodium is the whole reason the stuff works.
The name is a great deal younger than the clay itself. Early settlers called it mineral soap or soap clay, for what it did in water. In 1898, geologist Wilbur C. Knight named it bentonite for deposits in the Benton Shale near Rock River, Wyoming. Worth knowing, because plenty of sources get this wrong and place the naming in Montana. The best Wyoming bentonite still comes primarily from the Upper Cretaceous Mowry Shale.
The numbers explain why Wyoming owns this trade. The Wyoming State Geological Survey reports the state holds as much as 70 percent of the world's known supply. Wyoming sodium bentonite can swell up to 16 times its original size and absorb up to 10 times its own weight in water. Calcium bentonite, the low-swelling or non-swelling variety, is barely worth producing there. All of it is surface mined, no deeper than about 50 feet, then blended, ground, dried, and processed at mills across the state.
One number that surprises people: drilling mud accounts for only about 20 percent of the market. Cat litter is bigger, at roughly 25 percent.
What this means for your operation: The clay in your sack was engineered by geology, not by a chemist. How it behaves in your pit traces straight back to the sodium it picked up in that Cretaceous sea, which is exactly what the rest of this week is about.
Sources:
• Wyoming State Geological Survey: Wyoming Bentonite
• Wyoming Energy Authority: Bentonite
Industry Events
Event Spotlight: The Water Expo 2026
The Water Expo returns to the Broward County Convention Center this week for its fifteenth edition, and groundwater sits on the official sector list alongside wastewater, sewer infrastructure, trenchless and pipe rehabilitation, water quality and filtration, and irrigation. The draw for well professionals is the mix: an exhibit hall of equipment and technology, bilingual educational sessions, technical demonstrations, and accredited courses, plus facility tours on Thursday afternoon. It is also the rare United States show built deliberately to connect North American manufacturers with Latin American and Caribbean markets, which makes it a useful two days if you sell equipment or services beyond the border.
The Water Expo 2026
August 12 to 13, 2026 · Fort Lauderdale, FL
Information and Registration: The Water Expo 2026
Also This Week and Beyond
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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