WorldWide Drilling Resource

Geotechnical Investigation Goes to the Hogs Compiled by Bonnie Love, Editor, WorldWide Drilling Resource ® The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) announced plans to drill for soil samples at the C&H Hog Farms near Mt. Judea. The farm is owned by three local families who have lived in rural northwest Arkansas for eight generations. In 2013, they expanded their hog production by building a farm and incorporating the latest design elements, including environmental safeguards exceeding state or federal government requirements. Although they followed all permitting requirements and received approval from the state, people in the area are not happy. Local residents and environmental groups fear hog waste could potentially contaminate the area’s watershed. The farm is located on Big Creek, roughly six miles from where it joins the national Buffalo River. Despite preconstruction geotechnical borings indicating there are no karst features beneath the facilities or ponds, some fear the porous limestone and karst topography located in much of northwest Arkansas, could be present and ultimately, waste could seep into the region’s ground- water supply, and possibly the river. Environmental groups are now demanding additional testing, and the owners of C&H are cooperating. The farm has already taken preventative measures by adding synthetic liners and covers to manure ponds and installing leak detection equipment at the farm’s waste-holding ponds. Additionally, the University of Arkansas is monitoring the water quality in tributaries to the Buffalo River and in the river itself to see if the farm has had any impact. So, the decision has been made to use a sonic drilling rig to drill a 120-foot boring in the vicinity of the waste storage ponds to evaluate the subsurface conditions. Soil samples will be collected at five-foot intervals for analysis of potential analytes of interest. Any groundwater encountered while drilling the boring will also be sampled. Upon completion of the borehole, geophysical logging will be conducted including natural gamma and neutron logging. To ensure objectivity, all work will be conducted under the observation of ADEQ and Tai Hubbard, a professional geologist and independent karst geologist. Hubbard is certainly qualified with more than 15 years of experience on a variety of environmental and geotechnical projects, resulting in the management and oversite of over 5000 feet of sonic drilling. He started his career as a drilling 22 DECEMBER 2016 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Geotechnical Investigation cont’d on page 68.