July 19, 2026
This week’s photo is courtesy of Armadrill- Zapopan, Jalisco, MX.
Safety Focus
Part 1 of 4: Hand Tool Safety & Cleaning: Why It Matters
One of the most dangerous tool on your rig is one you have likely used a thousand times. Federal injury data puts “contact with objects” second only to overexertion among serious workplace injuries, and a hand tool that has quietly gone bad (a mushroomed chisel, a sprung wrench, a loose hammer head) is exactly how those injuries happen. OSHA points to the same cause: misuse and poor maintenance drive most hand‑tool injuries. This week covers the four steps that keep a good tool from becoming the reason you lose time: why it matters, how to spot a bad one, how to inspect it, and how to make the habit stick.
• Contact with objects caused an estimated 860,050 serious (DART) injury cases in 2023–24, second only to overexertion.
• Those cases ran a median of 8 days away from work each.
• Hands and arms were the body parts most often injured across all lost‑time cases.
Key Takeaways
• A failed hand tool is a direct, controllable cause of a very common injury type.
• Most hand‑tool injuries trace to maintenance and misuse, not bad luck.
• Inspect before use, every use. The rest of the week shows you how.
Sources:
• National Safety Council: Work Injuries and Illnesses by Part of Body
• OSHA: 1926.301 Hand Tools
Industry Update
Sioux Falls Bets On a Collector Well for 5 Million More Gallons per Day
Sioux Falls has put its rebuilt Well 25 into service, and the design is worth a look. Instead of one vertical borehole, the city used a horizontal collector well: a concrete caisson with multiple laterals fanning about 700 feet into the aquifer beside the Big Sioux River, spreading the intake across a wide footprint to lift yield without overdrawing any single spot. It replaces a well that had run since 1952, and at roughly 9.3 million dollars, funded largely by a federal grant, it restores one of the city’s most productive groundwater sites.
• Adds more than 5 million gallons per day, peaking near 7 million.
• Laterals extend a combined 700 feet into the aquifer.
• Sited using USGS hydrogeologic studies of the Big Sioux River corridor.
Sources:
• City of Sioux Falls: New Well 25 Enhances City's Water Reliability and Growth
Knowledge Share
Part 1 of 4: Vertical Line-Shaft Turbine Pumps 101: The Basics
Last week we covered submersibles, where the motor operates underwater at the bottom of the string. A vertical line‑shaft turbine flips that arrangement: the motor sits up top at the discharge head and drives a shaft running down inside the column pipe to a stack of impellers (the bowl assembly) down in the water. Each impeller stage adds head, so the water climbs the column to the surface. Keeping the motor at grade is the whole point: you can service or replace it without pulling the pump, and you are not locked into an electric motor, since a right‑angle gear lets an engine turn the same shaft. This week: how it works, the parts, lubrication, and what to check before you spec one.
• The motor stays at the surface; a line shaft carries power down the column to the bowls.
• Head is built in stages: more impellers, more lift.
• Line‑shaft bearings are lubricated by the pumped water, or by oil in deeper or sandy settings.
What this means for your operation: Where a site needs high flow, a surface motor, or engine drive, the line‑shaft turbine is often times your best option.
Sources:
• Wilo (Hydraulic Institute reference): Vertical Turbine Pump Basics
Industry Events
South Atlantic Jubilee
July 25-27, 2026; Myrtle Beach, SC
Information and Registration: South Atlantic Jubilee
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
NGWA Webinar: Data Centers and Groundwater
August 5, 2026; Virtual Attendance, 1:00 to 1:30 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!
