Safety from Start to Finish

September 2019
Sponsored by Geo-Loop and Mobile Drill

Presented by Brock Yordy

Continuing Education

Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s Continuing Education article.

Learning Objectives - After reading this article, you will be able to:

  1. Explain processes for checking the safety of equipment and materials.
  2. Adapt safety-checking processes to your own company’s needs in order to minimize risk.
  3. Identify and mitigate common drilling jobsite hazards.
  4. Develop emergency action plans for jobsite crews.
  5. Describe the value of stop work authority and how to encourage proper use.

Safety starts with employees who make good choices when completing tasks. Good decisions are made by well informed and trained workers who understand standard operating procedure, along with all risks involved. Drilling projects presents many hazards from start to finish. In this one-hour webinar we will cover project safety aspects and requirements starting before the equipment leaves the project. Next, we will cover job site operations and safety. Finally, we will cover emergency action plans and how to recognize a catastrophic failure and turn it into a near miss.

Safety Start

Photo: Jeremy Verdusco


Yordy

Brock Yordy is an experienced water well trainer who grew up drilling water wells for his father’s company in the United States. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts and Science from West Michigan University. Brock started his professional career as a Drilling Fluids Engineer for Baroid Industrial Drilling Products. As a mud engineer for Baroid IDP, he worked in with all methods of drilling, including; water well, geothermal, geotechnical, tunneling, construction, HDD, wireline coring, and large large-diameter shaft drilling. In 2008, Brock created a drilling fluids management plan for a 20ft 20-foot diameter reverse reverse-circulation project. The project was the first of its kind in the United States. In 2009, he was involved in the first phase of the Ball State Geothermal Project. Brock was instrumental in designing a drill plan and solids control program for the first 1,800 holes. In 2010, Brock developed a basic and advanced water well training program for the United States Military. The programs were specifically for water well drilling projects in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Brock has trained more than 350 men and women for the U.S. Army and Air Force Engineers. In 2011, Brock went on to work as Project Manager on a new solids control technology for Baroid. He implemented the system on mining projects all over the world, which has given him extensive international drilling experience. Currently, Brock is the Business Development Manager and in-house drilling expert with Midwest GeoDrill. You can read Brock’s columns about solids control, site safety, and drilling methods in the National Driller magazine. In addition, Brock continues to teach and is working on publishing his first book on “How to Become a Driller”, set to be released in late 2019.