Environmental Drilling
BG Drilling is a leading provider of environmental drilling for site investigation projects across Sydney, NSW and the east coast of Australia. We have the equipment to complete projects in any site condition, whether the challenge is restricted access, limited headroom or working alongside live underground services. We provide these services consistently on time and on budget.
Environmental drilling is the process of drilling into the ground to obtain soil, groundwater and soil vapour samples. Those samples let an environmental consultant assess whether contamination is present, build a profile of the site, and determine what remediation or ongoing monitoring is required. It is often the first step before a site changes hands, before construction begins, or where an existing operation needs to show it is not affecting the surrounding water table.
Some of the Environmental Services We Provide:
Push Tube Sampling (Macrocore & Dual Tube)
Solid Flight Auger
Hollow Flight Auger
Air Rotary
Mud Rotary
Tubex (Advance Casing)
Diamond Coring
Ground Water Monitoring Well Installation
Extraction Well Installation
What Environmental Drilling Is Used For
- Collecting soil, water and gas samples to analyse
- Monitoring wells to measure groundwater quality
- Sampling groundwater at closely spaced intervals for multi-port well installation
- Installing recovery wells for the treatment of contaminated water
- Monitoring wells where contaminated water from holding tailings dams has seeped through dam earth walls into watercourses
- Stabilising borehole areas
- Decommissioning wells
- Removing waste
Matching the Method to the Ground
No single technique suits every site. The right choice depends on the soil profile, the depth required and the samples your consultant needs.
Push tube and dual tube sampling, also known as direct push or soil probing, drives a hollow sample tube into the ground using a high speed hammer. The tube is withdrawn and the material inside preserved for testing. It suits sandy soils and clays at relatively shallow depths.
Hollow flight augering uses flight style augers with hollow centres. Samples are taken at depth by driving a hollow spoon through the core of the auger ahead of the bit. It works well in sandy soil, clay, and soil with some gravel content.
Solid flight augering, air rotary and mud rotary give us options where ground conditions are harder or where the hole needs support as it advances. Tubex advance casing lets us case the hole while drilling through unstable material, and diamond coring recovers intact core where bedrock needs to be logged.
Careful decontamination of below ground tooling between samples is part of every job. Without it, cross contamination makes the result from each sampling location unreliable.
Monitoring and Recovery Well Installation
Beyond sampling, we install a variety of groundwater and soil vapour monitoring well sizes, including nested wells and specialised instrumentation. Where an area needs to be monitored over a longer period rather than assessed once, these wells allow continuous testing. We also install extraction and recovery wells for the treatment of contaminated groundwater, and can conduct continuous soil sampling through the profile.
Non Destructive Drilling Support
Environmental work often takes place on operating sites, in car parks, alongside buildings and around live underground services. Our drilling is supported by dedicated Non Destructive Drilling crews who can safely concrete core and air or water vacuum excavate boreholes in advance of the drill crews.
On many sites this combined approach is an efficient and smarter way to complete an incident free investigation on time and on budget. It takes the guesswork out of the first few metres before a rig is ever set up over the hole.
Working With Your Environmental Consultant
Environmental drilling is rarely done in isolation. Your consultant tests the soil, groundwater or soil vapour samples we recover and builds the profile of the site that informs the remediation or monitoring plan that follows. We work to the sampling programme your consultant sets, at the locations and depths specified, and provide the access and support that programme requires.
Rigs and Site Access
BG Drilling operates a fleet of 20 drill rigs, from hand portable equipment through to truck mounted and tracked units. Several of our rig types are configured for environmental work, which means we can usually match the rig to the site rather than asking the site to accommodate the rig. For confined locations we run 9 dedicated tight access rigs with a small footprint and low impact, so investigations inside buildings, in basements and on constrained blocks remain workable.
All plant and equipment is serviced to customer specifications and to OH and S and environmental standards. The nature of drilling demands considerable environmental understanding and management, and we operate an environmental management system in which harm and associated risks are identified and effectively controlled.
Talk to BG Drilling about your environmental drilling programme. Tell us the site conditions, the depths and the samples your consultant needs, and we will tell you which rig and method suits. Get in touch.