Wells of a Different Nature

When we speak of wells, most people immediately think of a water well, be it a windmill, an irrigation well or a domestic well.  But there are other types of wells in use through the ingenuity of man.

Many people don't realize that along many buried pipelines there are a series of wells that are used to keep the buried pipes from rusting/corroding/deteriorating.  In the industry these are generally referred to "cathodic protection wells" although there are other names for them.  They are installed to minimize electrolytic corrosion of metallic objects (pipelines, tanks, etc.) that are in contact with the ground.  The natural corrosion process at work without this protection is by electrochemical reaction of the metal object with the environment - soil, air and water.

Basically a set of anodes are dropped down the well, set in with granular coke or some other electrically conductive material and connected to the underground pipeline or tank.  With a negative charge running to the item needing protection, the anodes become the target of the corrosive electrochemical activity.  They erode away instead of the pipeline or tank.  It's a slow process and most are designed to last about 20 years before the anodes need to be replaced or new cathodic wells need to be completed and hooked up.

These anodes can be in the groundwater or not.  Typically in eastern Kansas they are in the groundwater table.  In all cases in Kansas cathodic protection wells are required for all pipelines installed after 1971 (except for a few specific cases), and must be constructed to protect the usable groundwater - whether they're in the usable groundwater directly or just penetrating through it to deeper formations.

In any event, just to alert you that not all wells are for the purpose of securing groundwater.  For more information, search for "cathodic protection wells", or for Kansas information, contact the Kansas Corporation Commission who regulates these kinds of wells.

Kansas Oil & Gas Information

The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) regulates the oil and gas industry in the state, along with the other more traditional responsibilities like motor carriers, telecom issues and utility rates.  Many don't realize how much information is available on the web concerning oil and gas wells in the state.

For one, all the Intents to Drill oil and/or gas wells are posted and searchable here - Kansas Intents to Drill.  At least for the past year.  The Intent to Drill form has much information about the proposed well - including who are involved, what kind of a well it is, the intended pay zone information, whether it is a vertical or horizontal well, location, and much, much more.  These are pdf files.  The site also has monthly plugging reports on all plugged oil and gas wells and a lot of other information.

What does not seem to be available are the well completion reports showing how the well was completed - pipe used, cementing regimes, mudding data, etc., etc.  While the intents are useful in tracking new wells likely to be drilled, and the plugging reports are useful for finding out what wells were plugged, it is the completion reports that are so valuable for assessing if the wells are being completed correctly.  This is likely just an oversight by the KCC (cough, cough) that I'm sure will be remedied soon.

And the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) also has oil and gas industry information, including maps of all the oil and gas producing zones in the state, annual production reports, and much much more.  Use this link for the KGS oil and gas pages.  If you can't find something after visiting these two pages, call the agency.

Trouble for the Taj - Water Woes to Blame

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

I added an entry in my "movies including wells" listing a while back on a Smithsonian Channel documentary on the famed Taj Mahal, in Agra, India.  It's well-related factoid is that basically the entire foundation of the tomb-part of the structure was built on a grid of groundwater wells dug and filled with material for adequate support.

There is now much angst within India over the structural problems of the iconic Taj Mahal since the adjacent Yamuna River is far over-used, polluted, and drying up along with local groundwater levels dropping far too quickly - reported at 5 feet per year in the immediate vicinity.  It is the dropping groundwater levels that are drying out the 358+-year old mahogany piles used inside the lattice of wells to support the structure.  In the drying out process these posts become brittle and start to disintegrate.  Recent reports claim cracks have appeared in the tomb over the past year and that the 4 minarets are showing signs of excessive tilting - a structural collapse looming, according to some, in as few as 5 years.  A group has been set up to deal with the preservation, but claim a lack of funding is why nothing has been done since 2003.

They must have known something was afoot all along, because according to the Smithsonian Channel, one of the foundation wells was left open purposely for an observation well.  A 350-some year old record of on-site water levels should be a pretty good data set I'd think.  Groundwater declines always seem to be a problem - first it's land subsidence, drying up of wells and water supplies, loss of wetlands, river baseflows and deep rooted flora.  Now it's dessication of monument foundations. 

Here's hoping the government can solve this problem.  The Taj Majal is indeed in the top 3 list of the most architecturally beautiful buildings in the world - ever.