The Importance of Field Notes

By Ken Brynda, OM&M Compliance Manager, SCS Engineers, for the Landfill Gas and Biogas Technical Division, Field Practices Committee

The unsung hero at many landfills with a landfill gas collection system is the humble Wellfield Technician. The position of Wellfield Technician is multifaceted; this individual needs to be well equipped to deal with constant changes. A good technician is capable of monitoring the wellfield, interpreting the data, making various valve adjustments, troubleshooting irregularities, performing preventative maintenance, raising wells, pulling pumps, troubleshooting flare panels, and communicating effectively with those on their team, during all kinds of weather and changing conditions.

One practice that most good technicians embrace is keeping effective field notes. Those not engaging in this practice should do so. Field notes and comments added to a row of monitoring data can be of great future value to the technician and the rest of the team. Accurate and detailed field notes contain key information that can help the project team when it comes time to diagnose, repair or troubleshoot various wellfield issues.

Whether it’s a handwritten entry in a logbook, a comment stored in a field instrument, or notes saved in a smart phone, tablet or computer, the information recorded in field notes is indispensable for the proper, efficient maintenance of the wellfield. In the hectic daily push to get the wellfield read, while multitasking and keeping up with items that pop up at a moment’s notice, technicians may be hard pressed in the future to recall everything that is worth remembering. By keeping track of this information through note taking, the technician does not have to stop what they are doing to address the issues. Nor will they be scratching their head later trying to remember the issue.

Examples of items to track in field notes include wellhead valve positions, surging in vacuum supply risers at wellheads, required maintenance of sample ports, flex hoses, audible wellhead leaks, ponding water around wells, surface cracks around a well, and borehole backfill material settlement.

Regardless of how they are produced, field notes should be saved so they can be easily referenced in the future. Handwritten notes can be entered into a preventative maintenance program or a wellfield database so that they are accessible for use in planning repairs or troubleshooting problems. Once the wellfield monitoring and tuning has been completed, technicians can change course, and using their comments or notes as a punch-list, return to the wellfield well prepared to perform necessary maintenance or repairs to keep LFG collection components operating efficiently.