Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/681918
possible and move on to the next drill site. This shoddy work leads Steve to receive phone calls for wells needing to be redrilled, but the majority of the calls are from well owners who have problems and cannot locate the driller anymore. Steve tries to track down the driller and has mixed results. "We tell our customers we were in this before the drought and we're going to be in it after the drought," he says. "You got a problem, you know where to find us. We're not going anywhere. That helps the customer if they get a problem." Steve's father, Floyd, started his own business in 1971 under the name of Western Well Drilling. Floyd's brother-in- law, Orvel Orum, came on board in 1972 and the name was changed to Arthur & Orum Well Drilling. Orvel retired in 1989, but the name stayed the same. Today, 79-year-old Floyd is at the office every day at 7 a.m. to go over the day's activities with Steve. Floyd still serves as president of the company and has moved into more of a consultant position, where Steve is the vice president and runs most of the day-to-day business operations of the com- pany. The company is in the running for the California Busi- ness of the Year Award from California State University, Fresno Craig School of Business. The winner was scheduled to be announced on May 25. Steve prides himself on conducting business honestly and treating his customers and employees like family. He offers his drillers a bonus incentive on drilled footage if the well is con- structed correctly. He hopes his competitors who do substan- dard work will be driven out in the next three to four months. Meanwhile, the California Contractors State License Board caught 83 people flouting the state's construction and home repair contracting laws during the CSLB's annual "Spring Blitz" sting operation in April. Steve only wishes the CSLB would oversee the water well drilling industry more heavily and target phony drillers. Nearly all of the company's work is repeat at the moment for his staff of 30 employees and six drill rigs, one of which runs around the clock. The bulk (85%) of drilling is for agri- culture and the remaining amount is for domestic drilling. Arthur & Orum Well Drilling recently hosted an employee appreciation day on May 6. "We decided to do this because it was such a crazy year," says Kim Hammond, Steve's sister and corporate secretary. "Our employees felt the pressure from our farmers because of the drought. We asked a lot from our employees and they rose to the occasion. Our farmers appreciated it." Water Quality The groundwater in the Turlock is predominately of the sodium-calcium bicarbonate type, with sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride types at the western margin and a small area in the north-central portion, according to the California Department of Water Resources. There are localized areas of hard groundwater, nitrate, chloride, boron, and dibromochropropane, the major pesticide contaminant of drinking water in California. Some sodium chloride type water of high total dissolved solids is found along the west side of the subbasin. The city of Turlock reports over time there has been a decline in water quality due to an increase in total dissolved solids and nitrate levels. In the San Joaquin Valley, arsenic and uranium are found in specific hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical regimes, says Christopher S. Johnson, PG, CHg, president and principal hydrogeologist at Aegis Groundwater Consulting LLC in Fresno, California. "We have a reasonable understanding of the geographic and vertical occurrences," Johnson says. "We've designed a number of wells to avoid the presence of uranium. The same is true for arsenic. Right now we are preparing to use the same process to address boron." Johnson advocates conducting a complete borehole assess- ment and a smarter approach through design of the well and its components like the screen and gravel pack. He co-presented on well design reducing concentrations of naturally occurring uranium using subsurface lithologic, radiologic, and geochemical methods in Kerman, California, 15 miles west of Fresno, at the 2005 National Ground Water Association Naturally Occurring Contaminants Conference. The presentation concludes by recommending the need to investigate the subsurface, zone test for confirmation, and design the well based on water quality. With the San Joaquin Valley an agriculturally-intensive region, nitrates have historically been an issue. Like in the second part of this series on the Ogallala Aquifer, farming practices of fertilizer application in this region could be a con- sequence of the presence of nitrates. Johnson also says the function of the well design could have been a contributor. "Nitrates are difficult to specifically solve the problem," Johnson says. "There is a certain degree of remedial effort to put into this by revising how we build wells. We can build them smarter rather than some archaic, antiquated standard. "Most counties have a minimum vertical thickness of the sanitary well seal, being 20 feet to 100 feet depending on the county. Most of my wells—when given an option—seal at 700 to 1000 feet. We're not going to get any water from up there we want, so let's just seal it off. Generally, we have better results with that." TURLOCK AND SAN JOAQUIN from page 29 Map of the San Joaquin River watershed. waterwelljournal.com 30 June 2016 WWJ