National Ground Water Association

Mike H. Mehmert is an NGWA member and an active Well Standards Committee member. He is the director of Sales and Marketing-Well Products at Johnson Screens, a Weatherford company. He obtained his B.S. in geology from Texas A&M University in 1970.

 

His career, spanning more than 38 years, has encompassed consulting, contracting, and manufacturing — almost entirely in the groundwater industry.

 

Mehmert is a member of the AWWA. He has been an active participant in local, regional, and national associations throughout his entire professional career in the industry. He served on the Colorado Water Well Contractors Board, the Mountain States Association Board, the NGWA Education Committee, the AWWA Project Advisory Committee, and the Board of the American Ground Water Trust, and is past-chairman of the Well Screen Product Group of the Manufacturers Division of NGWA.

 

His work has been published in the Water Well Journal®, numerous technical bulletins, manuals, technical sales support documents, instructional public and private technical training, and education programs for Johnson Screens around the country.

 

Mehmert was the project director and contributing author for the third edition of Groundwater & Wells.

 

"You Drill a Hole — You Develop a Well" was the title of Mehmert's 2010 NGWREF McEllhiney Lecture. Holes are drilled every day for any number of construction or exploration applications that are not required to produce fluids. Examples include boreholes for foundation or structural footings, the installation of instrumentation or explosives, or the recovery of geologic core data. In these instances or even for observation wells — designed only to monitor groundwater levels — the intended purpose is not fluid production.

 

When a hole is drilled for a producing water well, then further steps are involved. These include design, installation, and completion considerations, all intended to achieve desired yield, operational efficiency, and optimal service life. It is within the completion considerations that we perform what has become commonly known in the industry as well development. All drilling methods disturb, alter, and reduce (to some degree) the hydraulic properties of water-producing geologic formations (aquifers). The objective of well development is to correct the negative effects of the drilling process and restore or improve the hydraulic properties at the borehole within the screen zone.

 

The discussion examined what the negative drilling impacts are, what can cause them, what we can do about them, and the consequences when they are not addressed. Various development techniques were presented, with the emphasis on suitability of technique to completion design. Mehmert discussed and attempted to answer the ever-present question, "When is a well developed?" The lecture addressed both low- and high-capacity well development issues.

 

Well efficiency directly impacts operational cost. The lecture discussed well efficiency and the vital role that well development plays in achieving maximum efficiency. The lecture emphasized the importance of well development and challenged industry professionals to examine current practices and always seek improvement.