WorldWide Drilling Resource

92 AUGUST 2013 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Groundwater Sustainability Discussed Adapted from an Article by Eric Hake Courtesy of the Colorado School of Mines’ Oredigger Newspaper Earlier this year, Dr. GrahamE. Fogg, Professor of Hydrogeology for theUniversity of California, Davis, visited the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, to give a presentation regarding groundwa- ter sustainability. Fogg began by explaining the impor- tance of California’s farmland, by saying, “California produces 50% of the nation’s fruits and vegetables with irrigation.” According to Fogg, the groundwater in most systems is hundreds to thousands of years old, yet the pollutants that humans are adding to the water are only 50-60 years old. As a result, the quality of groundwa- ter is likely to decline in the near future. Fogg went on to ask, “What is the evi- dence that the water quality is getting worse?” Historically, data from city wells is often limited because after the detec- tion of high levels of contaminants, the city will shut down the well and discon- tinue testing it for contaminants. Recently, however, cities are gathering data from these closed wells, as well as from rural and suburban areas where most nonpoint sources exist. “The question is, ‘How long is it going to take the contaminated water to move down and to gradually contaminate more and more groundwater?’” Fogg asked. He believes the answer depends on the contamination sources. The main sources he outlined were farmland runoff and cattle manure runoff. Another consider- ation is the fertilizer used on crops, which also contains contaminants. Fogg believes if farmers drill shallow wells, they could reuse contaminated groundwater for their crops. The nutrients in the contaminated groundwater would supplement the fer- tilizer and allow farmers to use fertilizer in more sustainable amounts without de- creasing their crop yield. Fogg concluded his lecture by inform- ing the audience what he believes should be done to sway public opinion. He said, “We need to be able to answer the ques- tion. If we reduce nitrogen loading by 50%, is that going to amount to a profit or not? If you can’t tell people when positive effects will occur, then you’re not going to get anybody to change their practices.” Unfortunately, models to accurately predict how ground- water interacts and moves has not even come close to being produced. L i ke many o f today’s public health issues, solving this problem, is not going to be an easy task and wi l l require a great deal of research. Photo of Professor Fogg courtesy of citrus-uc.org Do Your Employees Matter? Adapted from Information by DeHart & Company Public Relations Of course your employees matter. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t hire them, trust them to do important work, or keep pay- ing them week after week. However, according to Christine Comaford, you may inadvertently do and say things to make them feel otherwise. According to Comaford, author of the New York Times best seller SmartTribes: How Teams Become Br i l l iant Together, “Mattering is one of the three most primal hu- man needs, along with safety and belonging. When employees are made to feel that they don’t matter, it happens on an emotional level, not an intellectual one. And we now know that emotions, not intellect, drive 90% of human behavior.” When leaders say or do something which makes employees feel insignificant, frightened, or isolated (the three tend to work together), they revert to the fight/ flight/freeze part of the brain - falling into what Comaford calls the “Critter State”. Once in this state, all innovation and col- laboration skills fall by the wayside, and every decision boils down to a single question: What will keep me safe? So what might you be doing to make your employees feel they don’t matter? Comaford reveals some of the top offend- ers: • You don’t give them feedback - positive or negative. When people mat- ter, we want them to know they’ve done a good job. If they haven’t done a good job, we want them to know that too, so they can improve. To the employee’s “Critter Brain”, silence means we don’t care enough to let them know either way. A simple ‘good job’ means a lot; and while it’s less fun to hear constructive crit- icism, once your employees start getting better results, they’ll know you cared enough to speak up. • You acknowledge people ONLY when they make mistakes. This makes them feel like a broken part that must be repaired to keep the company machine running smoothly. To let them know they matter, make a positive personal connec- tion with employees as often as possible. Be specific, and let them know their unique contribution makes a real differ- ence to the company. • You don’t celebrate victories. No, just getting paid isn’t reward enough for doing a great job. When your crew has completed a hard or large project, or done an exceptional job with an inspec- tion, make a point to order a special lunch and celebrate the team company wide. “Team victory celebrations foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie - which go hand in hand with mattering,” notes Comaford. • You burn them out. The drilling industry can demand long, hard hours from your employees. Completing one high-stress task after another, day after day after day can make them feel like you don’t care about their well-being and they’ll burn out. Yes, everyone has to work a little harder from time to time, but no one can sustain a hard-core pace forever. “We all need a good blend of peo- ple, activities, and things that excite and energize us in order to balance out those (inevitable) things that drain us. If your employees matter to you, you’ll help them strike that balance,” Comaford added. Paying attention to what goes on inside your employees’ heads may seem like a foreign notion, but once you see the results, you may be willing to change the way you lead.