Editor Greg Ettling talks to environmental drilling contractors about the industry.
A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with a number of environmental drilling contractors across the country, concentrating the discussion on local market conditions and their impact on business. I'll share some of the comments that arose.
For the near future, Shaefer anticipates considerable opportunities in remediation projects. With all the underground storage tanks being taken out, the issue of contamination looms large. "After the tanks have been removed, a certain amount of contaminated soil also has been removed," he notes. "Typically, on three out of 10 sites, there are ground water issues to deal with. A lot of times, that involves putting in recovery wells, oil/water skimmers or GAC filtering systems. The most difficult one to deal with is the MTBE. Scientific advances are being made on how to deal with that, and as soon as it comes around, we'll be on the cutting edge of getting these things cleaned up and figuring out various methods of removal."