International Award Given to Horizontal Remediation Project

The Australasian Land and Groundwater Association, ALGA, recognized Pedro Balbachevsky, AECOM, and his team, Directional Technologies and Matrix Drilling, for the 2018 Outstanding Innovation Award for Australia’s 1st Installation of Horizontal Wells for ISCO and Biosparging.

Challenged with remediation of a seemingly inaccessible contaminate plume beneath an active chemical manufacturing facility, Pedro explored several options. Installation of horizontal wells with directional drilling was the option that continued to provide the answers to the challenges the site presented. Pedro reached out to Mike Sequino, Directional Technologies’ Principal Engineer, to corroborate his intentions and initial design. Together, Pedro and Mike worked to finalize the design of the horizontal injection system to meet his remedial objectives and access the source contaminate zone.

Even though the horizontal wells could only be installed from one location at the facility, Directional Technologies’ drilling team was able to successfully navigate beneath aboveground and underground infrastructure and obstacles for installation of three single-ended horizontal injection wells. Since the installation, nearly 130,000 total gallons of regents have been injected into the target zone, resulting in significant source area contaminate reduction.

This project exemplifies the capabilities of horizontal wells. For over 27 years, Directional Technologies has been providing horizontal remediation well design, construction, and installation services at environmental sites. We enjoyed working with Pedro on his first horizontal well project as we were able to introduce to Pedro and his team the capabilities and power of horizontal wells. Ultimately, however, it was Pedro’s creativity and willingness to try something new which won him this award.

Directional Technologies is thrilled that ALGA recognized Pedro and his team for this award, and we look forward to being a part of numerous ground-breaking horizontal remediation well projects in the years to come.

For additional details about Australia’s First Installation of Horizontal Wells for In Situ Chemical Oxidation and Biosparging, read the full case study here, Directional Technologies Down Under.