WorldWide Drilling Resource

Tales from the Field by Jeremy C. Wire Geoconsultants, Inc. The Invisible Drill Crew It is obvious water and agriculture go together, and over the years we have worked on many agricul- tural projects. Particularly where some new or novel crop to an area comes along, investors buy in, and large tracts of land are planted where no agricultural enterprise has existed before. Many years ago, one such project involved cultivation of jojoba plants, the oil from their beans being useful for such applications as high-temperature lubricating oils. Jojoba plants were already adapted to desert conditions, and many acres of land were dedicated to their cultivation in the arid regions of southeastern California and adjacent Arizona. The setting for one such project was in southwestern Arizona, and our task was to complete geophysical surveys for irrigation well location for jojoba cultivation on a large parcel which had not been previously farmed. A water well drilling rig was scheduled to arrive on the property, and our task was to locate sites for test holes, and try to provide locations for drilling as quickly as pos- sible. Test drilling was expected to proceed rapidly so irrigation wells could be constructed and planting occur soon thereafter. One very hot day at the site, our crew, using a rented white-colored vehicle for fieldwork, spied the newly arrived drill rig off in the distance at one of the first rec- ommended locations. Wanting to see how the drilling was going, they went to visit the operation. Upon arriving, everything was quiet, no machinery was running, but all the required service vehicles were pres- ent. No drill crew was in sight . . . where could they have gone? One possibility was there might have been some sort of an emergency and everyone had left for the nearest town. After standing around puzzling about this, there was a brief stirring under the shade of one of the service trucks. One by one the drill crew slowly appeared, look- ing somewhat embarrassed. Apparently, they went into hiding as the white un- marked vehicle approached because they thought it might belong to the state reg- ulating authorities who were coming to shut the operation down! In the contrac- tor’s haste to move on-site from California, although they had applied for proper per- mits for drilling, these had not yet been received, but the drill crew started drilling anyway. Once our crew introduced them- selves as to who they really were, the drill crew was relieved, and in good humor everyone returned to work. Altogether, about ten test holes were drilled in the campaign, followed by several satisfactory irrigation wells. However, we understood about a year or two later, a huge wind/sandstorm arrived and de- stroyed many of the jojoba seedlings, lending support to the idea that the “for- tunes of farming” are often largely de- pendent on weather, as well as water. Jeremy michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com 58 JUNE 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®