Business Practices and Recordkeeping
What the exam tests
Business practice questions cover contracts, records, and the paper trail that supports a well's legal and technical history. A missing record can cost more than a lost rig day.
Core practices
- Use a written contract that states scope, depth basis, casing and screen specifications, grouting, testing, site restoration, payment terms, and change-order procedure. Oral changes are the classic dispute.
- Keep a daily driller's log: date, method, bit size, casing, screen, grout volume and mix, water strikes, static and pumping levels, yield, and samples. Record actual measurements, not approximations.
- Retain well records, permits, lab reports, pump tests, and PWTA documents for the period required and make them available to the owner and regulator.
- Bill accurately: distinguish footage drilled from casing installed and from screen; a homeowner may compare the invoice to the well record.
- Carry the insurance and licensing required for the work, and use written change orders when a hole is lost, casing is deepened, or an unexpected fracture zone requires extra casing.
Worked example
A homeowner claims the well is 40 feet shallower than billed. The driller's log shows 180 feet total, 120 feet of casing, and 20 feet of screen; the invoice lists 180 feet drilled plus 120 feet casing. The discrepancy is a billing-format issue, not a depth issue. The log and a signed change order for extra casing resolve it. Without the log, the driller may lose the argument even though the work was correct.
Traps
Recording grout to surface without the calculated volume. Throwing away pump-test data after the pump is installed. Using the same description for a repair and a new well. Promising a yield in the contract; promise a test, not a number.