Latest News

DTD recently completed the  installation of 5 single ended (blind) oxygen injection wells in Southern New England. The wells were part of a remediation system being used to mitigate two zones of contaminated groundwater migrating from a former gas station.  And as is often the case at gas stations, the contamination had migrated beneath the adjacent street… a typically busy “Main Street”

The wells ranged in length from 120 to 238 feet, and were set with horizontal sections at either 20 or 40 feet below ground.   Although these blind wells were relatively short in length, cobbly soils, many utilities and a very limited drilling footprint created a multitude of challenges.

Setting the drill rig over the second entry pit.

To minimize the surface footprint, all five wells were installed within two small entry pits.  The restricted footprint also required the rig to be set at extreme angles to avoid fiber optic, water and sewer utilities. However, the biggest challenge was just drilling the wells. Relic concrete from the underground storage tank pads and abundant cobble required a varied drilling approach to the drilling to insure the well screens were placed in the targeted zone of contamination. Despite these nuances; ingenuity and “on-the-fly” field decisions allowed for the successful installation of these horizontal remediation wells.

Three of five recently installed oxygen injection wells.

There will be short course on horizontal wells at the Battelle Conference in Monterey, CA. The course is appropriate for all scientists, engineers, regulators, and anyone trying to build their knowledge of environmental remediation using horizontal wells.  The short course is part of the well respected “Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds” offered Bi-Annually since 1998. (http://battelle.org/conferences/chlorinated/)

DTD President, Dan Ombalski and Vice President Jim Doesburg will (along with other instructors) share their knowledge of horizontal well design and the use of horizontal wells for environmental remediation. The course will be Wednesday, May 23rd, from 1:00 til 5 pm. For a full course description click the following link:

http://battelle.org/Conferences/chlorinated/short.aspx#14

Mike Lubrecht, LG, DTD’s senior geologist will one of several featured speakers at the annual National Tanks Conference in St. Louis, on March 20. He will be joined by a professor from Clemson University and the Global Market Manager from Carus corporation, in speaking on new and alternative remedial technologies. Mike’s topic will be on the installation of horizontal remediation wells.

Dan Ombalski, PG, DTD President, and Jim Doesburg, PG, LHG, are both featured speakers at the annual Battelle Conference in May 21-24, 2010. Both speakers will be presenting talks on HDD for environmental remediation, in scheduled technical sessions and as part of a workshop on horizontal remediation wells to be held at the conference.

DTD will be operating booths at both venues, so be sure to stop by and visit with our friendly and knowledgeable staff.

ES&T, one of the leading, peer-reviewed publications for environmental engineers and scientists just published an article by DTD geologist Mike Lubrecht, describing the Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) benefits of HDD. Using publicly-available tools, Mike demonstrated that installing horizontal remediation wells instead of using conventional drilling or trenching can often reduce air emissions significantly for remedy construction, and has many other sustainability benefits as well. The article, Horizontal Directional Drilling: A Green and Sustainable Technology for Site Remediation, is available on the ES&T website.

For more information on HDD and GSR or to discuss specific project details for horizontal remediation wells, contact Mike at mike@horizontaldrill.com.

In effort to maintain our flexibility and to improve support for our big rigs, DTD has added an American Augers MP-400 to its fleet of mud systems. The MP-400 has a mud storage capacity of 6,400 gallons and a cleaning capacity of  400 gpm.

The system has an on-board triplex mud pump with maximum output of 400 gallon per minute. The system is ideal for supporting our use of biodegradable drilling fluids with our CMS6015, CMS9030, or AA210 drilling rigs. On long bores the mud system can be setup on the exit side to clean and ready fluids for transport or pumping back to the rig side. We have already used the system to install two horizontal air sparge wells in New Mexico (one was 1,200′ long and the second was 810′ long and blind).  Below is a picture of the system in our Texas yard, with recently upgraded safety rails around the mixing station at the front of the trailer.

American Augers MP-400 Drill Fluid Recycling System

DTD has opened new offices in Pennsylvania and Texas, improving our access to job locations across the country. This eases the complicated logistics necessary to move our drill rigs from from one side of the country to the other, or even just returning the rigs to the shop for routine maintenance. In today’s expensive shipping and trucking markets, our three locations help drive our mobilization costs lower.

Each facility has a staffed maintenance garage and exterior storage yard. Addresses for each facility are shown below, and if you click on our recent projects map on the right side of our home page, you can see the locations on a map (the office locations are shown with a house shaped icon). Check back in the near future for photos of the new offices.

Directed Technologies Drilling, Inc. – Headquarters
100 Rolling Ridge Drive
Bellefonte, PA 16823
Contact: Dan Ombalski

Directed Technologies Drilling, Inc. – Washington Office
3476-B W. Belfair Valley Rd
Bremerton, WA 98312
Contact: Jim Doesburg

Directed Technologies Drilling, Inc. – Texas Office
7701 Hwy 180 East
Mineral Wells, TX 76067
Contact: James Ditto

DTD has recently completed the installation of four blind air sparge wells ranging from 360 to 600 feet in length. The horizontal wells were completed at a national airport, with three wells extending beneath the tarmac. Complicating the installation was the difficult ground: construction fill (debris including broken tarmac concrete and rebar) overlying resilient saprolite and weathered crystalline granite.

Drilling was completed with a mud-motor and tri-cone bit driven by DTD’s American Augers DD210. The drill rig and all support equipment (drill rig, the drill rod, mud recycling system, and support trailer) can all be seen in the site layout photo to the left. Existing site infrastructure and the multiple wells in a small area made for a challenging set up. All cuttings and waste were containerized in a lined rolloff with secondary containment incase of leakage or spills. A photo showing the rolloff, secondary containment and the mud recycling system can be seen below to the right. In addition to the rolloff, a closed top frac-tank was staged on site. The frac-tank took any liquid waste, including any decanted from the the top of the rolloff.

The bore design called for a large radius curve through the  construction debris and into saprolite before leveling out for the horizontally oriented screen section. However, where the bore passed through the construction debris the material was unstable and prevented the installation the HDPE well materials in the traditional manner. Therefore DTD used its proprietary, patent pending technology, to stabilize the bore and install the wells. Three of the wells required this approach, while one bore was stable enough to allow the well material installation.

The sparge wells are designed to distribute air across the width of a plume to remediate groundwater contaminated with jet fuel and its components. As with all DTD wells, the bores were completed with biodegradable drilling fluid in effort to minimize damage to the geologic formation’s hydraulic conductivity. This allows the wells to communicate as efficiently as possible with the surrounding matrix, and in turn, provide a better functioning remediation system. For additional information, email dan AT horizontaldrill.com or, info AT horizontaldrill.com

Water Utility Infrastructure Management recently (Dec. 21) published an article by Dan Ombalski and Mike Lubrecht on the use of HDD for tapping unusual or difficult groundwater resources. With several examples from water projects completed by DTD, the article provides an overview of how HDD can be applied in a variety of ways for water supply. Take a look at the article at the UI Online website.

Entitled, “Remediation Beneath California Tank Farm: Directional Well Installation Overcomes Many Challenges” our latest article in Trenchless describes our recent project in San Diego, installing stainless steel wells over 1800 feet in length. Read it here in the September issue of Trenchless Online.

Interest in using sustainable practices and technologies for environmental cleanup has increased notably within the past few years. The US EPA and many states have published recommended practices to reduce the environmental footprint of cleanup operations, and many consultants and contractors are attempting to “go green” in contaminated site remediation. It makes sense to conserve energy, reduce pollution, and curtail waste – particularly when you’re in the process of cleaning up a site!

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) can be an important component of a sustainable cleanup strategy. A single horizontal well can be considerably more effective than a long string of vertical wells, reducing the energy consumption and pollution associated with well installation and system operation. In many cases, one or two horizontal wells can replace multiple vertical wells, hundreds of feet of conveyance piping, multiple pumps or blowers, the drilling and trenching required for installation, and the energy and maintenance activities to run a more complex system. HDD systems minimize surface disruption, and can be installed beneath sensitive ecosystems without disturbing them. Further, horizontal well systems have frequently reduced the amount of time to meet site minimum cleanup levels, which reduces the energy consumption for system operation even more.

Manifold for vertical air sparge/SVE system

Well end completion for >500 foot HDD extraction well

Installing a 900 foot well beneath protected shoreline, with two endangered species

When you're considering your next cleanup project, give serious thought to incorporating HDD in the design. Horizontal wells are effective for many technical reasons, and sustainable remediation is a beneficial byproduct. For more information about HDD and sustainable remediation, contact Mike Lubrecht, LG, at mike AT horizontaldrill.com.