When installing monitoring and recovery wells, the emphasis is to get clean holes that do not contaminate either the surrounding soil or groundwater. Air rotary drilling is the method of choice in many cases. Air rotary drilling involves using drill bits to advance drill stem through underground subsurface lithology while using compressed air to remove the drill cuttings.

What are the Advantages of Air Rotary Drilling?

Air rotary drilling has certain advantages that make it superior to other types of drilling, especially when installing monitoring wells or recovery wells in the state of Texas and surrounding areas.

• Adequate Removal of Drill Cuttings - The compressed air used during the drilling process removes the cuttings and debris quickly and keeps the boring clean.
  
  
• Knowledge of what is going on down below during drilling - As the cuttings come up, the drillers can check the types of materials coming up and make adjustments as needed and determine the subsurface lithology.
  
  
• Immediate sign of water - When the drill bit reaches the water table or aquifer, the compressed air will bring it up quickly indicating that drilling needs to stop quickly to reduce the chances of contamination.
  
  
• Reduced Risk of Contamination  - Because there is no liquids involved in the drilling process, the chances of polluting the groundwater table or the aquifer is very low. Plus, with the right accessories, the cuttings and groundwater pulled up by the compressed air can be contained and if contaminated properly disposed of according to State and Federal regulations. 
  
  
• Fast Penetration - This drilling method is among the fastest in the industry. With air rotary drilling, it is possible to drill through a couple hundred feet in a short period of time.
  
  
• Long bit life - The compressed air does a couple of things to lengthen the life of the bit. First, it cools down the bit by pulling heat away. Second, it removes cuttings quickly which helps prevent rapid dulling of the bit. A long bit life helps to cut costs to the client.
  
  
• The need for clean water is not necessary - When using a liquid for drilling, the drillers either have to tap into a local water source or ship in containers of drilling fluid. With air drilling, that is not a problem as air is readily available with the correct compressor size.
  
  

Are There Disadvantages to Air Rotary Drilling?

Of course, air rotary drilling is not the perfect solution for all drilling needs. There are a couple of problems which make using it a challenge:

• Problems with non-consolidated materials - Air rotary drilling works best in rock and densely consolidated layers. Sandy conditions or other unconsolidated materials may require adding casings or drilling additives as the drill goes down to keep the bore in place and prevent cave-in.
  
  
• Depth limitations - Air rotary drilling becomes more difficult as the depth of the hole increases depending on the subsurface lithology. The deeper the bore hole reaches, the compressed air has trouble removing debris and cooling the bit.

 Talon/LPE are experts in air rotary drilling. Our environmental drilling company has over 100 years of combined experience installing thousands of wells throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.