Protecting Groundwater Resources Is Vital When Drilling Geothermal Boreholes
Posted from Well Log with permission of the National Ground Water Association. Copyright 2009.
By Art Becker, CWD/PI
SGS Environmental Services Inc.
Contractors Division President
art.becker@sgs.com

It seems America is going green. Granted, it’s summer in New Jersey and everything is green in terms of the landscape for me.

But I’m not talking about that kind of green. I’m talking about green energy-geothermal, wind, solar, and hybrid cars. The new administration in Washington is pushing green, and I can see the merit in making our country more energy independent, which is spelled "green."

However, there is a downside to everything. One of my concerns is that in our desire to go green some people see it as in the color of money in new technology, but they don’t have the experience or knowledge to provide the green technology without compromising and putting our groundwater resources at risk. The geothermal market is a great example of this.

I will stop being politically correct and say that experienced well drillers who have the knowledge and ability to drill and properly construct boreholes to protect our groundwater resources are the people who should be installing geothermal boreholes and loop systems. I’m not suggesting that the industry cannot accommodate new entities in this growing market to provide this technology to consumers. I’m only saying that protection of groundwater resources should be the most important consideration in the drilling of geothermal boreholes. Geothermal will grow most likely at an exponential rate in the next decade. NGWA contractors can lead the way in quality and environmentally sound installations.