What is Environmental Drilling?

Environmental drilling and sampling is generally done for phase II and phase III environmental assessments of commercial, government, and residential properties. This involves specialized drilling methods to advance through the soils and/or through the desired water table(s) for investigations of the soil and water. This is done to determine the presence and/or concentration of contaminants.

Once contamination is encountered, a proper remediation can be done by either Ex-situ or In-situ methods.  Ex-situ methods involve excavation of the contaminated soils completely and back filled with clean soil or treated soil. In-situ methods seek to treat the contamination without removing the soils. This can be done by installing injection wells into the boreholes, where the chemical treatment is then pumped down the well intersecting with the contaminated soil or water table.

These investigations and treatments are vital to the human health and the health of the environment and all its living creatures. Keeping our soil and water table clean is important for drinking water if you are being supplied by a well. These tests performed by the environmental drilling process, allow us to keep the soil and water table clean by treating contamination when it is found.

Monitoring wells are commonly installed in the boreholes during the environmental drilling, which provide a solid pvc pipe casing the soil from collapsing. A slotted screen is installed at the bottom of this pvc pipe to allow the water table to flow into the well pipe. This provides a pur sample of water that can be extracted from the well and tested at different time intervals to determine the severity of the contamination on site.