WorldWide Drilling Resource

Royal Eijk elkamp to Design Sri Lanka’s Ground water Monitoring Network Adapted from a Press Release by Royal Eijkelkamp Royal Eijkelkamp has won a five-year contract with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management to cre- ate a groundwater monitoring network. “Like many other countries, Sri Lanka also faces a variety of groundwater-related problems,” Senior Project Manager Elsa Mulder-van Hei jst said. “Groundwater is becoming scarcer, population growth increases the demand for groundwater, and a large variety of users causes fluctuations in level, quality, and composition of the groundwater. In addition, there are various climatic zones in Sri Lanka. In the dry zone, where residents are affected frequently by chronic kidney disease, a very high arsenic and mercury content is found in most drinking water samples.” The monitoring network is expected to contain 150 measuring locations, providing decision makers with timely, reliable, and accu- rate data, so groundwater-related problems can be monitored and managed. Directors Huug Eijkelkamp, Frank Tillmann, and supervisory board members Fons Eijkelkamp and Joop Hylkema, are proud to have been awarded this contract. In addition to the equipment, the company plans to take care of all activities within the project, from research, design, development, financial structuring, planning, management, implementation, and training, to functional delivery. The groundwater monitoring network will be constructed in three river basins and will be monitored from the capital city of Colombo. In the three river basins, Royal Eijkelkamp will start with a detailed field study to determine the measuring locations and hydrogeological profiles. Once the locations have been determined, the company will conduct all drilling work using its sonic drills, followed by sensor installation, data transport, and validating the data. The Data Management Centre of the Water Resources Board in Colombo, will house the control room where all the data will be received, monitored, and managed. 302-684-3197 FAX: 302-384-0643 142 Broadkill Rd. • Milton, DE 19968 www.atlantic-screen.com email: atlantic@ce.net Manufacturers of Slotted & Perforated Pipe ranging from ½” to 24” diameter Atlantic Screen & Mfg., Inc. • Well Rehab. Products • Manholes • Bentonite • Filter Sock • Inline Chemical Mixers • Sampling Bailers • Clear PVC Pipe • Locking Caps 52 AUGUST 2018 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Tales from the Field by Jeremy C. Wire Geoconsultants, Inc. Surface Appearances can be Deceiving In one of our previous “Tales”, we recounted an episode of accidently falling into the mud pit at a drilling site while not paying attention to surface conditions. A more recent episode involved a more serious situa- tion - in this case, getting a vehicle stuck while taking a “shortcut” and again not giving attention to surface conditions. In the end, it got us into trouble. The setting was an agricultural well pumping test being conducted at one end of a large vacant field. Several hundred gallons per minute were being produced. There was no special place to dispose of this quantity of water, so it was being discharged on the surface. Our task was to check the progress of the test. Upon arriving at the site, we could see the operation in the distance at one end of the field. So we thought, rather than go a long distance around the perimeter of the field to the operation, why not take a shortcut and go diagonally across it to save time? The surface soil looked dry and it seemed like a good idea. However, it was suddenly evident that although the surface looked dry, our van was quickly sinking up to both axles in mud. Apparently, the quantity of water discharged into one end of the field over several days had saturated a large portion of the field to an interval about three feet deep where it had collected over a hardpan layer and the water could not penetrate deeper into the soil. After some good-natured ribbing by the pump contractor’s crew about how dumb it was to get in this predicament in the first place, a long chain was connected to our van, hitched to their service truck, and the van was quickly extracted from its muddy environment. In his case, the lesson to be learned (again, unfortunately) is surface conditions can be deceiving, and taking a shortcut to try to save time certainly did not pay off. Jeremy Jeremy Wire may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com ENV WTR