Drilling Through the Years

I was recently working on what will hopefully be my last field drilling project, and I started reminiscing with the driller about the changes we have both seen over the years (me more than him after 40 plus years of doing this). It’s surprising how much safety, technology and industry culture have evolved over the years. What was once commonplace, now seems ancient and some (many) of the old habits are now frowned upon or obsolete. 

Safety
Some of the biggest improvements have been in safety on the drill. Auto-hammers replacing spinning cat-heads, hemp rope and a 140-pound drop hammer is a massive improvement in both safety and accurate blow counts for N-values. The advent of protective cages can help prevent entanglement – and stop some folks from being tempted to hand-clean a moving auger. Safety training, tail-gate safety meetings and diligent utility locating process are now the norm, and we are all safer because of it.

Technology
While some older drill rigs still rely on horsepower and brute force to do the work; the development of lighter, compact and more powerful drills has made drilling more productive; and many of the more difficult drilling sites are now accessible to a wide variety of rigs. When I first witnessed a Geoprobe rig in action about 20+ years ago, I was amazed at the productivity compared to a standard auger rig. The advances in percussive drill technology since then, along with specialized tight-access drills has really opened up the possibilities in the field. It’s nothing these days to drive a small powerful drill inside a building, or down into a low-headroom basement and be able to drill 10 meters or more. When you need really, really deep holes in bedrock or boulder till, the new Sonic-style drills will drill through anything. When you combine the latest drilling equipment with High Resolution Site Characterization technologies the amount of data you can now collect is amazing.

Culture
The days of ‘rough-and-tumble’ drillers hired solely for their strong back, a ‘D’-license and a willingness to work long hours away from home are (mostly) gone. More drillers are likely to be college educated these days, and more familiar with operating high-tech drill rigs than with slinging pipe wrenches and holding an ancient drill rig together with duct tape and bailer twine. While some old-timer tricks like using a cut-off pop can in lieu of sand traps are much less common; so too are the old-school habits of chewing bentonite pellets for indigestion or running some of the soil sample across your teeth to determine silt content.

While I may miss some of the wilder drilling adventures of my youth, overall I think the drilling industry of today is much safer, stronger and diverse than it has ever been – and that’s a good thing.

Bill Leedham, P. Geo., CESA
Bill is the Head Instructor and Course Developer for the Associated Environmental Site Assessors of Canada (www.aesac.ca); and the founder and President of Down 2 Earth Environmental Services Inc. You can contact Bill at info@down2earthenvironmental.ca