Water Well Journal

April 2016

Water Well Journal

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WWJ April 2016 29 Twitter @WaterWellJournl T he oilfield may come to mind when you think of angled wells. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have been the mainstay of the most recent oil boom. With this technology, oil drilling rigs drill down vertically and then horizontally until they reach their prospective oil "pay zone." Using this drilling method is often more expensive than traditional vertical drilling, but the expense is often justified by a tremendous yield of oil and gas from these previously unreachable zones. So can this technology work for water? Most traditional water wells are drilled vertically from top to bottom. However, this method means water zones must in- tersect horizontally with the vertical wellbore. Just like in oil and gas, if you miss the pay zone with your vertical bore, the gallons per minute produced by the well may not meet your customer's needs. There is also the chance there will be no water at all. There are some groundwater professionals, both contrac- tors and scientists, who think angled well technology can be beneficial for water systems. And so we feature here a round- table discussion with some of these professionals. Water Well Journal: Can you give us some insight why this angled method can be beneficial? Gary Soden: Horizontal wells are beneficial when the prop- erty owner has no water available vertically. David Traut: One of the most beneficial places to use this technology is river basins. Sometimes there are areas where if you move outside the river basin, you cannot get a satisfactory vertical well because of when the water carved its way through there and sedimentary sands redeposited in the river channel. Areas with poor surface water, particularly with high TDS, are also areas where this method is beneficial. We'll drill under the river basin and let Mother Nature's sands be the natural filter medium. Michael Lubrecht: Horizontal wells are particularly attractive for relatively shallow, say under 150 feet, with a thin water- bearing layer, or for production of water from surface water bodies. Our Roundtable Michael Lubrecht, LG, a senior geologist at Directed Tech- nologies Drilling Inc. in Bremerton, Washington John McCray, Ph.D., a professor and the head of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado Gary Soden, CWD, of Clear Heart Drilling Inc. in Santa Rosa, California David Traut, MGWC, CVCLD, of Mark J. Traut Wells Inc. in Waite Park, Minnesota Using horizontal technology to get hard-to-reach water. By Lana Straub ANGLED WELLS continues on page 30 Traut Wells installs 12-inch inner steel casing for the second angled well. The Foremost DR rig allows them to drive the casing as they drill and construct the well inside of the casing. Photos courtesy Traut Wells.

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