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General industry rules for water well drilling

Summary An OSHA region asked which standards applied to water well drilling. OSHA said employers engaged in that work should comply with applicable general-industry standards because the hazards resembled oil and gas well drilling, despite the usual industry classification approach.
Document
Federal opinion letter
Agency
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Document number
1982-02-26
Date issued
February 26, 1982
Status
Active
Status last verified October 10, 2026
Topics
Workplace Safety OSHA 1910 Drilling
Source
View the official document

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About this page: The full text below is the official document from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Ezel adds the plain-English summary and tracks the document's status. The official source linked on this page is authoritative for any reliance.

February 26, 1982

MEMORANDUM FOR: GILBERT J. SAULTER
Regional Administrator
ATTENTION: HERBERT M. KURTZ
ARA for Technical Support
THROUGH: JOHN MILES
Field Coordinator
FROM: PATRICK TYSON, Director
[Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs]
SUBJECT: Request for Interpretation on Applicability of Standards to Water Well Drilling

Water well drilling, oil, and gas well drilling expose employees to similar hazards, therefore, employers engaged in drilling operations shall comply with appropriate General Industry Standards. This is an exception in classifying an industry when using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) manual but, is necessary for proper citing of water well drilling alleged violations.
[Corrected 10/22/2004]

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