Not Just for Remediation – HDD does water supply, too
DTD continues to assist our clients in assessing the use of horizontal directional drilling to solve challenging water supply issues. As demands on municipal and industrial water supplies continue to increase, managers also find themselves needing to deal with changes imposed by climate change, lowering water tables, and water rights.
We are currently working with clients from the Gulf Coast to California, and the Rocky Mountains in between, to devise new ways to employ directional drilling for water supply. As just one example of the range of available solutions, let’s revisit a project that DTD completed in 2010, on the West Slope of the Colorado Rockies.
DTD was tasked with setting two collection wells into the land slide deposit at an elevation of 7,500 feet above the mountain town of Paonia, Colorado. The extreme drilling conditions required the setting of casing to stabilize the ground and allow the installation of a stainless steel casing and screen. The well materials were set at a positive angle such that water flows freely from the ground providing a continuous passive supply.
Air Hammer on DTD’s 2440
The passive supply was necessary because the well site is in a remote setting with no electricity 4.5 miles of rugged jeep trail from the nearest road. With a passive supply, the water can be inexpensively accumulated even through low-usage times (night time) for use during peak load.
Although the wells are not particularly high in yield, the continuous flow adds significant capacity to the town’s existing water supply.