The modern driller

COOL, CLEAR WATER is precious stuff. Not only man, but all life depends on it. No water anywhere is cooler, or clearer, than the water which exists underground. Nor is any other supply of fresh water as plentiful. More than 97% of this earth's fluid fresh water is ground water.

It is plain to see why, then, a career in the water well industry, where men make their living by developing the use of this great natural resource, is both important and rewarding. Within the water well industry, the men who provide the access to these vast reservoirs of cool, clear water are the drillers. This article and the others which follow are an introduction to the knowledge a man must acquire to become a water well driller.

The modern driller There still are places all over the world where people dig wells, as they have done for uncounted thousands of years. Water wells also are driven or bored. The practical importance of ground water in today's world, however, is due to the development of modern water well drilling.

Drilled wells can go deeper to tap water supplies far below the surface. Drilled wells can be larger or smaller as needs dictate. Drilled wells can protect the generally greater purity of underground water more easily and more securely. Today's water well driller is both the provider and the protector of the nation's ground water resources.

Different drilling methods are used to tap different ground water formations. The major ones and their proper uses will be explained later in this manual. Briefly, they include cable-tool percussion drilling and hydraulic rotary drilling.

Cable tool equipment drills holes for wells by steadily dropping and lifting and dropping again a heavy string of tools. A rotary rig drills with a rotating bit, removing its cuttings by means of a continually circulating drilling fluid. There are variations of both, and each is suited to particular drilling problems.

Drilling problems provide the challenges of water well work. They differ widely. This is because the earth's geologic formations, the ground under our feet, differs from one place to the next. To begin with, then, a driller must know something about the places where ground water occurs and how it got there in order to make it available for proper use.