Once upon a time—before I started my own environmental consulting company Moran Rocks LLC—I was working at Shaw Environmental in Miami Lakes, Florida.
One project still stands out.
My colleague and I were sent to collect soil and groundwater samples in Palm Beach County, in an area where the water table was unusually deep. Nothing fancy—just us, some hand tools, and a job to get done.
Now, anyone who’s done fieldwork in Miami knows the drill: you often hit hard rock before you even get close to the water table. Palm Beach, thankfully, was a different story. Once we got past the asphalt, it was smooth sailing.
Well… after the “fun” part.
That always means pounding through asphalt with a spud bar just to reach the soil beneath—the good stuff we actually came for.
In this case, what we hit underneath wasn’t limestone or stubborn rock.
It was sugar sand.
And honestly, it was a dream. The hand auger went through it easily as we worked our way down to the water table to install a temporary well for a groundwater sample.
Hand augering through sugar sand always reminded me of skiing on a perfectly groomed slope. Every turn of the auger had that soft schh, schh sound—like carving through freshly groomed snow. A rare luxury in a job where you’re usually battling chunks of limestone with a steel rod.
But then we hit a snag.
The temporary well we brought… was too short.
When we lowered it into the hole, the top dropped below ground level. And we didn’t have any extension pipe. Suddenly, we were staring at a problem: if we placed it down there, we might not be able to retrieve it at all.
That’s when I came up with a simple—but surprisingly effective—idea.
The most universal tool in any field kit.
Duct tape.
We fashioned two long “bunny ears”—basically taped tabs running up the sides of the well, extending well above ground surface. With those makeshift handles in place, we were able to safely lower the well, collect our groundwater sample, and then pull it back out without a problem.
Clean. Simple. Effective.
Afterward, we restored the site as if nothing unusual had ever happened.
Looking back at an old photo of me standing next to that hand auger—reaching nearly 20 feet high—I can still feel how satisfying that day was. Not because everything went perfectly, but because we figured it out with what we had.
Fieldwork always has those moments: unexpected problems, limited tools, and quick thinking under pressure.
If you need help with environmental consulting—whether you’re a property owner or another consultant—feel free to reach out.