The deployment of specialized horizontal well systems (HWS) for site assessment and remediation has experienced a revival due to decreased cost and greater flexibility in deployment. The latter is specifically tied to moving from monolithic single well systems, that are subject to preferential path distortions, to segmented well systems. The resultant discretized horizontal profiling brings additional accuracy to assessment at sites and improves CSMs, especially those challenged by access issues and also provides more directed treatment operations. Specialized HWS also provide more directed treatment operations with a unique flexibility for managing both subsurface air and groundwater management, specifically vapor or liquid extraction, air sparging and the delivery of liquid reagents. Also, with horizontal nested, segmented well systems, on a case by case basis, there can be significant economic advantages in their deployment versus vertical well systems, even with exploratory vertical assessments facilitating optimal horizontal well placement. Several case studies will be presented that illuminate the advantages of segmented horizontal well systems, that also incorporate miniaturization and nested bundling methods into the process. The improved flexibility and the integrity of the data sets that are collected and the ability to deliver reagents with improved precision will be illustrated.

Primary Author / Conference Presenter:
Erik Piatt
CEO
EN Rx, Inc.
Decatur, TX, USA

Co-Authors:
Stephen S. Koenigsberg, EN Rx, Inc., Irvine, CA
Lance I. Robinson, EN Rx, Inc., Tampa, FL
Wes Wiley, EN Rx, Inc., Denver, CO