August 18, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Stewart Brothers Drilling Co.- Milan, NM, USA
Safety Focus
Part 2 of 4: Site Safety Foundations
You cannot control a hazard you have not identified, so recognition is the first real skill.
OSHA groups the deadliest construction hazards into what it calls the Focus Four, sometimes called the Fatal Four: falls, struck-by, caught-in or between, and electrocution. Together those four account for well over half of construction deaths every year. On a drill site, each one has a familiar face.
• Falls: Not just from the mast. Elevated platforms, the back of the rig, catwalks, and open pits. Falls are the single largest category of construction fatalities.
• Struck-by: Rotating drill pipe, a swinging load, a tool knocked off the platform, a hose under pressure, or the rig itself overturning. Struck-by is the leading cause of nonfatal construction injuries.
• Caught-in or between: Pinch points on the rotary table, the drawworks, augers, and moving iron. Loose clothing and gloves near rotating equipment are a caught-in hazard, not a comfort choice.
• Electrocution: Contact with overhead power lines while raising or moving the mast is a recurring killer in this trade. Keep your clearance and treat every line as energized.
Add the hazards specific to our work environment: respirable silica dust from drilling and cuttings, hazardous noise, high-pressure air and hydraulic lines, hydrogen sulfide in some formations, and heat.
None of these are new to an experienced driller, pump installer, or hand. That is exactly the risk. The hazards that hurt people are usually the ones that have been there all along, the ones we stopped seeing. Recognition is not about noticing the extreme situations, it is about looking at the ordinary ones on purpose, before the task starts.
Tomorrow we turn that looking into a two-minute pre-task check you can run on any site.
Key Takeaways:
• OSHA's Focus Four (falls, struck-by, caught-in or between, electrocution) drive most construction deaths.
• On a rig, add silica, noise, high-pressure lines, hydrogen sulfide, and heat to the list.
• Loose clothing and gloves near rotating iron are a caught-in hazard.
• Recognition means looking at familiar hazards deliberately, not just knowing they exist.
Sources:
• OSHA: Construction Focus Four Hazards
Knowledge Share
Part 2 of 4: The Hydrologic Cycle
and Where Groundwater Fits
Before we can talk about how water moves through an aquifer, we need to place groundwater in the bigger picture. Every well you drill and every pump you set has an impact on one stage of the hydrologic cycle (the water cycle), and understanding the impact of each well changes how you think about recharge, yield, and drought.
Start with the numbers, because they surprise people. Of all the freshwater on Earth, the USGS estimates more than 68 percent is locked in polar ice and glaciers and about 30 percent is groundwater. Together, they make up nearly 99 percent of all the fresh water. Everything else, all the rivers, lakes, and soil moisture we can see, adds up to less than 1 percent. Set the ice aside, and nearly all of the world's available liquid freshwater is underground. That is the resource we directly impact.
Here is the cycle in the order water travels it: Precipitation falls. Some runs off into streams, some evaporates, and some infiltrates into the soil. The water that soaks in and keeps moving downward makes its way to the water table, the top of the saturated zone, and becomes groundwater. This downward flux across the water table is recharge, and it is the only way an aquifer naturally refills. Underground, groundwater moves slowly through pore spaces and fractures, generally toward lower ground, until it discharges into a stream, a spring, a wetland, the ocean, or a well.
Two ideas from this are worth carrying all year. First, groundwater and surface water are one connected system, not two. Much of the flow in a healthy stream is groundwater discharge. Second, an aquifer is a bank account. Recharge is the deposit, pumping and natural discharge are the withdrawals, and the balance only holds if deposits keep pace. That stored volume is also why aquifers carry us through drought: a large reservoir underground can supply water long after the rain stops, which is exactly why demand on wells climbs in a dry year.
Tomorrow we sort aquifers into their types, because not all of them behave the same way.
What this means for your next job: when a customer asks why their well level dropped, start with the cycle. Recharge, storage, and discharge explain most of what you will see in the field.
Sources:
USGS: Where is Earth's Water?
Industry Update
Drought Now Grips 43 States
Though we have recently seen catastrophic rain and flooding in the Midwest and Ohio Valley, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, valid August 11, shows 43 states in moderate drought (D1) or worse, covering 42.4 percent of the country, up from 40.72 percent a week earlier. An estimated 85 million people and nearly 250 million acres of cropland are now in drought.
For anyone who works on wells, drought is not simply weather news. It is what drives demand. When shallow wells drop below the pump and static levels fall, the calls come in: pump lowering and replacement, well deepening, redevelopment and rehabilitation, and new wells where old ones can no longer keep up. Agricultural and livestock operations feel it first and hardest.
One caution worth passing to customers. A low-producing well in a dry year does not automatically need to be drilled deeper. Sometimes the fix is a lower pump setting, a redevelopment to restore lost specific capacity, or a storage-and-controls change. Diagnose before you deepen. That is where a specific-capacity check earns its keep, and it ties directly into the aquifer hydraulics we start next week.
Most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the rain and flooding. Not only in the Midwest and Ohio Valley, but also with those in Hawaii.
Source: U.S. Drought Monitor
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
NGWA: Hydrogeology of States Webinar, Maine
August 26, 2026; Virtual Attendance
Information and Registration: NGWA Hydrogeology of States: Maine
NGWA: Advancing Women in Groundwater
August 27, 2026; Virtual Attendance
Information and Registration: NGWA Advancing Women in Groundwater
AWWA: Water Infrastructure Conference and Exposition
August 30 to September 2, 2026; Indianapolis, IN
Information and Registration: AWWA Water Infrastructure Conference
National Drilling Association: Drill Expo
September 17 to 18, 2026; Nashville, TN
Information and Registration: NDA Drill Expo
NGWA: Groundwater Week 2026
December 8 to 10, 2026; Las Vegas, NV
Information and Registration: NGWA Groundwater Week
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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