Tooling Spells Sampling Success

Environmental consultants and engineers seek out Odyssey Environmental Services inc. for diverse projects, including petroleum retail, property transfers, brownfields, industrial manufacturing, highway work, and dry cleaning sites with the occasional residential site. Building the business in Pennsylvania during the past 16 years, they’ve seen the industry and its equipment mature.

“Odyssey evolves with the client’s needs and their demands.The mindset used to be a lot of production work, get the job done as fast as you can, and move on to the next. Over time the thought process and industry has changed to the collection of good, solid data and relying on safety as the upmost importance,” Jason Miller, vice president and co-owner, said. “Geoprobe^® has done a great job developing machines that do both.”

Relying predominantly on Geoprobe^® to specialize in soil and groundwater remediation services, Miller reminisces regarding the development of the drilling equipment product lines.

“The Geoprobe^® industry has completely evolved over the years since the early days with a 420U out of the back of a van to what it is today. Then with the Geoprobe^® R&D program, it has taken machines and tooling a step higher year-after-year. Geoprobe^® has provided us with the ability to provide clients turnkey service — soil and groundwater sampling, installing wells with augers and mud, to running air rotary into rock to obtain groundwater and set monitoring wells,” Miller said. “This allows us to serve our clients’ needs with their diverse projects. The new and larger machines with options have allowed us to use one machine for the entire project as where years ago we needed two machines, if not three sometimes, to complete a project. Also running a Geoprobe^® has reduced the rig footprint size.”

Relying on Geoprobe^® goes beyond just drilling equipment. Prepping for a job on a former manufactured gas plant site, Miller formulated a plan to run multiple tooling strings to case off certain formations to prevent cross contamination between aquifers as required by the Department of Environment. With the methodology he was considering, he anticipated requesting Geoprobe^® manufacture a special shoe or retrofit an existing shoe.

“I called Vic and asked him his thoughts and what to do to make this work. Instead of retrofitting or manufacturing something special, we just jumped up a rod size. He helped us put together the right tool strings and the right shoes to complete this project,” Miller said. “Geoprobe^® provides phenomenal support. Vic and Geoprobe^® have the resources to provide unlimited support. With Geoprobe^® we can extend our network of resources to gain ideas with no conflict of interest to help figure out how to get specialty jobs done.”

The job in Washington D.C. ran on schedule even as additional scope of work, labor, and equipment was required to collect sample data due to changing subsurface conditions. They pushed approximately 35 feet with the 3.75 rods and then ran DT22 out continuously from 35 to approximately 75 feet. At some locations augers were spun and air rotary drilled to break up concrete pads and construction debris so direct push tooling could be run below. They accomplished the job using just their 7822DT.

“We used the 3.75 rods to seat into the upper clay layer and case off so contamination wouldn’t be drawn down into a deeper aquifer, preventing cross contamination when advancing the DT22 50-75 feet to the top of the next clay layer,” Miller said. “Silty sand between clay layers may or may not have been contaminated, so when we pulled the inner DT22 tool string, tremie pipe was installed to grout while the tool string was pulled.” 

While Miller rarely sees the final results on most projects like this, he knows he has a pleased client at the end of the project when they collected quality samples.

“The tooling flexibility and various diameters were key to the project,” Miller said. “The versatility of the tooling is incredible. Geoprobe^® listens to customers and operators who run the machines everyday to develop new machines, machine options, and tooling.”

He attributes open communication with customers for allowing Geoprobe^® drilling equipment to advance in the industry.

“Over the years Geoprobe^® is always on the leading edge of development to make everything work easier. They keep working on the thread pattern. Now the rope pattern makes tools thread together and break apart much easier,” Miller said. “Geoprobe^® is proactive toward operator use and ease, making tooling easier for people running the machine and their helpers. It’s all based on insight coming from field feedback.”