The Daily Drop

August 3, 2026

This week’s photo is courtesy of P.W. Gillibrand Co.- CA and TX, USA

Safety Focus

Part 1 of 4: Snake Safety- Why It Matters

A drill site checks the boxes for what a rattlesnake likes. Cleared ground with brush piled at the edges. Rocks, pipe, and pallets stacked, all creating shade. Early starts, and a lot of the work out in the warm, dry air. The crew is working where the snakes already live.

NIOSH reports 7,000 to 8,000 venomous snakebites in the US every year, and about five deaths. Deaths are rare because anti-venom and modern care work, not because the bite is minor. The bigger risk is lasting harm: for rattlesnake bites, NIOSH puts the odds of permanent injury, like losing part of a finger or its use, at 10 to 44 percent.

A real share happens on the clock. In one national registry (the ToxIC snakebite registry, 2014 to 2015), about 1 in 7 adult bites was work related, the most in Arizona, then Texas. Landscape workers were the single largest occupational group, and construction, laborer, and oil-field work show up in the same data.

So we treat snakes like any site hazard: know why they matter, recognize the risk, know what to do, and build it into the crew's habits.

One note. There is no OSHA standard written just for snakes. On a water well or construction site it falls under OSHA's general duty clause and the PPE rules. On mine property, MSHA governs. Either way, the working guidance comes from NIOSH.

Today we discuss why. The rest of the week we will cover how.

Key Takeaways

• A drilling site's ground conditions and early hours line up with when and where snakes are active.

• Bites are rarely fatal, but a serious one can cost weeks of work and permanent damage.

• Treat snakes as a recognized site hazard. The rest of the week shows you how.

Sources:

• NIOSH: Venomous Snakes at Work

• NIOSH: Venomous Snakes, A Neglected Hazard for Outdoor Workers

Industry Update

Feds Warn Water-System Controllers are Under Attack

If your work touches pump controls, this one is operational. On July 30 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that attackers are increasingly targeting the programmable logic controllers that run water and wastewater systems, and told operators to get any internet-exposed PLCs off the public internet fast. The tactics are blunt: changing passwords to lock operators out, and changing device IP addresses to knock controllers offline. At some utilities that meant boil-water notices and running the plant by hand.

This is not theoretical. A joint FBI and EPA notice reports incidents at water utilities in at least seven states since July 27. CISA also flagged a common blind spot: undocumented cellular modems that routine scans miss.

For well pros the takeaway is simple. The notices name internet-facing PLCs, but the same exposure applies to any wellfield OT you can reach from the open internet, a variable-frequency drive, a tank-level sensor, a telemetry link. The fix is mostly discipline: take it off the public internet and route any remote access through a VPN or gateway rather than straight to the PLC, change default passwords, limit which machines can reach it, keep a known clean backup of the controller image, and confirm you can still run the pump by hand. If you service controls, that list is a service you can sell.

Sources:

• CISA: CISA Urges Water and Wastewater Systems Sector to Protect OT Against Activity Targeting PLCs

• FBI and EPA: Malicious Cyber Actors Targeting Water and Wastewater Sector Internet-Facing Programmable Logic Controllers, Causing Operational Disruptions

Knowledge Share

Part 1 of 4: Geophysical Logging for Water Wells- The Basics

Almost half the U.S. population relies on groundwater for its water supply, and more than 43 million Americans draw theirs from a private well. Every one requires a true understanding of what is underground: where the sand and gravel are, where the clay sits, where the water is and what the water quality is. For many years, the driller's log, written from cuttings and feel, was commonly the only down-hole record. Now, geophysical logging provides true accurate and reliable measurements and data.

Logging is the process of lowering a string of instruments, called probes or sondes, down the open hole to record the physical properties of the formations they pass. The tools read what the eye cannot: gamma radiation, resistivity, hole diameter, temperature, sonic travel time. Plotted side by side, those readings let a hydrogeologist or well designer interpret the lithology, find the probable water-bearing zones, flag the clay layers, and can even help catch changes in water quality. In some cases, the logs can differ from what the cuttings suggested.

Much of the technology originated in the oil and gas industry. The USGS has been adapting that petroleum logging methods to groundwater work for well over half a century, and portable, often trailer-mounted units are now widely available, which has greatly expanded how readily water wells can be logged. Why it matters is money and longevity: the logs help you identify where to set screen and filter pack, and that placement is what separates a well that produces for decades from one that could produce sand or have less that efficient production.

Today we are covering the basics. Tomorrow we will touch on the individual logs and what each reads. Wednesday, reading them together to place screen and pack. And Thursday, what to confirm before the equipment leaves.

What this means for your operation: Logging provides solid, measurable data that can be used to ensure that the final well design is done correctly. The cost of a log is small next to the cost of setting screen in the wrong interval.

Sources:

• USGS: Borehole Geophysics Applied to Ground-Water Investigations

• USGS: Domestic (Private) Supply Wells

• Utah Geological Survey: Utah's New Borehole-Geophysical Logging Program for Water Wells

Industry Events

Event Spotlight: Data Centers and Groundwater, an NGWA Members Webinar

Data centers are the groundwater story of the year, and NGWA just put a stake in the ground. This members-only webinar (Wednesday, August 5, 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. Eastern) walks through NGWA's newly released position paper on data centers and groundwater: the core stance that development must protect groundwater quality and quantity, be transparent about water and energy use, and use the best available technology to cut or eliminate consumptive use. Expect recommended planning and reporting criteria, the case for hydrogeologic assessments, and where geothermal fits as a way to reduce water demand. If data-center water is landing in your service area, this is a useful thirty minutes.

NGWA: Data Centers and Groundwater: What NGWA Members Need to Know

August 5, 2026 · 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. Eastern · Online (members only)

Information and Registration: Data Centers and Groundwater: What NGWA Members Need to Know

Also This Week and Beyond

NGWA Darcy Lecture: Groundwater Recharge Regimes Are in Flux

August 4, 2026 · Online (1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Eastern)

Information and Registration: NGWA Darcy Lecture

The Water Expo

August 12–13, 2026 · Fort Lauderdale, FL

Information and Registration: The Water Expo

AGWT Mid-Atlantic and the Carolinas Groundwater Conference

August 18–19, 2026 · Richmond, VA