NGWA Water Well Construction Standard Process Accepted By ANSI

Following its determination that the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) properly met its standard development process, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved, pending a 15-day appeal period, for NGWA to issue ANSI/NGWA-01-14, a water well construction standard. Throughout the standard development process, ANSI-required core principles to be followed were openness, balance, lack of dominance, and consensus.

NGWA's first-ever third-party sanctioned standard, ANSI/NGWA-01-14 sets a baseline of expectations for water well system professionals to meet for residential, agricultural, monitoring, industrial, and public supply water wells. The standard seeks to contribute to public health and safety, resource protection, and to serve as an outcomes focus for NGWA's voluntary water well system professional certification program.

The process to establish the standard began eight years ago when NGWA initiated efforts to become an ANSI-accredited standards developer. NGWA's initiative was officially announced via ANSI's Standards Action in 2008.

Topics covered by the ANSI/NGWA standard include:

• Well site selection
• Casing and casing installation
• Well screens, filter pack, and formation stabilizer
• Grouting
• Plumbness and alignment
• Well development
• Testing for performance
• Data recording
• Disinfection with chlorine
• Water sampling and analysis
• Permanent well and test-hole decommissioning.

"This is a very good day for our industry. I trust this standard will help us all design and build better products and services for our customers," said Todd E. Hunter, CWD/PI, a member of NGWA's Standards Development Oversight Committee and an NGWA Board officer. "I thank everyone involved for the countless hours spent putting this together."

Thom M. Hanna, RPG, also a member of NGWA's Standards Development Oversight Committee, said the standard will provide minimum criteria to anyone who needs guidance on properly designed and constructed well systems.

"There is more guidance in some places than others, but there are a lot of areas where there is no guidance," said Hanna, adding that many people look to NGWA for guidance in well construction, which this standard provides

It will be available in the NGWA bookstore in the near future.

About NGWA
NGWA, a nonprofit organization composed of U.S. and international groundwater professionals -- contractors, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, and engineers -- is dedicated to advancing groundwater knowledge. NGWA's vision is to be the leading groundwater association that advocates the responsible development, management, and use of water.