Milestone Cup

The first ever “Milestone Cup” was held on February 19, organized and sponsored by Milestone Environmental Contractors. It was a great day of hockey and networking with about 40 other people in the environmental industry. Additionally, over $3000 was raised for “The Stop Community Food Centre”. Although our team was less than victorious, it was a great way to get out of the normal daily grind. Anyone else out there who works in the subsurface investigation industry who also is prepared to suit up for some hockey may want to consider it for the second annual tournament next February.

APGO Webinar

In April 2013, we wrote that the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO) had released a draft template for reports completed to satisfy the reporting requirements for Phase Two ESAs for Reg 153.  (See link here for that posting and document).  The finalized version of the document is dated October 2013 and can be found by clicking Template.  On May 15, 2014, the APGO will be presenting a webinar to discuss this document.  You can register for the webinar by clicking here.

Vibracorer Sampling

Our colleagues at Pollutech have added a nifty new system to their fleet of equipment.  The Sediment Vibracorer Sampling System is ideal for collecting sediment cores in open water areas.  This system is great for sampling stream, river and lake areas, which many of the drilling contractors are not equipped to access.  For more information, click here to link to their information, or call their Sarnia office at 519 339 8787

Smart Remediation

Building on the tremendous success of the first “Smart Remediation” conference last year, organizers have been planning an event for this year.  You can get all the details by clicking Smart Remediation.

MOE Guidance Document Released (Draft)

The MOE has released a draft version of a technical guidance document on soil vapour intrusion.  The MOE indicates “The Guidance is intended to provide the user with a basic understanding of soil vapour intrusion and the tools required to identify review and evaluate sites for vapour intrusion with respect to contaminated sites.”  The MOE had an info session on this topic on January 27.

Because Kodiak Drilling specializes in drilling indoors, we have installed a lot of vapour probes and have developed some unique methods and equipment for their installation.  We will continue to monitor the MOE proposed methods to ensure we are providing equipment and methods that are technically defensible and consistent with their requirements.
After revising the document based on feedback, the MOE plans to post the document on the EBR for public comment.

Maxxam Labs Article on F3 & F4 in Groundwater

Kodiak Drilling is often installing monitoring wells for environmental consultants who are evaluating sites for petroleum hydrocarbon contamination.  Maxxam Labs has recently published an article related to F3 and F4 PHCs in groundwater.  Maxxam recommends the use of low flow sampling in silty conditions to prevent soil particles from being included in the sample.  You can read the article by clicking  Solubility for F3 F4.

Feature Article

Over 15 years of experience conducting drilling investigations in limited access areas, has led Kodiak to develop an array of methods for accessing and drilling very complicated locations. Many of these methods have been developed as a result of a challenge presented by clients. A very typical phone call to the office would sound something like this: “…….and these holes are located in a yada yada yada spot that there is no way we can fit a truck mounted drill into……I have called every driller I know and they all say they cannot do it…..” In the mid 1990s, these challenges led Kodiak to alternative equipment that was not within the fleet of a conventional drilling company. Over the last several years the focus has been on tweaking these machines and developing alternate methods and various tricks to push the machines to more far reaching limits. It has now reached the point where a client can mention virtually any type of location and Kodiak will likely have a proven method (that is not to say however, that new challenges are not welcome).

Kodiak pioneered the Big Beaver drilling method in Ontario in 1996; a method specifically developed for fly-in locations in Northern Ontario. Since that time, many variations on the method have been developed and implemented at a number of sites. While drilling indoors with the machine has been undertaken countless times, it has increasingly been used to access basement locations by winching the machine down interior staircases.

Some recent challenges have taken this method to new limits.  A recent job highlights some challenges presented by a number of projects undertaken over the last few years:

• The boreholes and monitoring well locations were in three very small basements of a strip plaza with a narrow rear alleyway and operating businesses,
• Other drillers, using rapid percussion methods were unable to advance the holes to sufficient depths due to the soil conditions,
• All holes were to be large enough to install 2inch monitoring wells to facilitate hydrogeological testing in addition to the contaminant sampling,
• All drilling was to be undertaken using hollow stem augers, preventing the usage of a small probe type of drill.
• Overhead clearance was approximately 7ft (2.1m),
• And most significantly, the interior configuration of the building units and stairways would not allow for a Big Beaver to be winched into the basements.

As rapid percussion equipment alone was not suitable for the project, the only way to fulfill the mandate was to disassemble the Big Beaver, carry it down the stairs in pieces, and reassemble it in the basement. This has presented a significant challenge on similar projects, as the machine is not only structurally assembled, but also contains three hydraulic motors and an array of fittings and hoses. Once disassembled, the largest piece of the drill is still over 250lbs and a challenge to manually carry down the stairways. Key to this process was the ability to complete the disassembly and reassembly process in a tight time frame in order to keep drilling costs down and minimize the disturbance to the tenants. Kodiak has made a variety of modifications to the drill so that the tear down and rebuild may be done quickly.

Once in the basement and the drill reassembled, drilling was completed by using a combination of hollow stem augers with the Big Beaver and a PEP (Portable Electric Percussion) drill for soil sampling. The PEP was needed as the restrictive overhead clearance did not allow for the use of the cathead and 140lb hammer component of the drill.

Of course once the drilling was completed, the disassembly process needed to be repeated in order to move the drill back out of the basement, moved to the next basement and then reassembled. This process was repeated for each of the units where drilling was required.

For more information, contact Kodiak Drilling, the limited access specialists for environmental and geotechnical drilling in Ontario.