And not casing failures — it’s overland flow from rutted haul roads carrying salty water off the pad after a 2-inch rain; on a 2019 site in Washington County we saw chlorides jump [redacted]/L at a downgradient spring. Are others baking road grading, 12–18 inch berms, and quick EC checks into routine storm prep to head off those off-pad hits?
Same here — . What’s helped most is pre-closing road culverts before a forecast “2-inch rain” and cutting a shallow V-ditch to a temporary lined sump at the pad exit; quick EC checks are good, but a cheap 15‑min logger at the downgradient spring lets us dispatch a vac truck the minute it spikes. Do your 12–18 inch berms hold once the ruts re-form, or are you adding cross-drains/crowning after grading?
But pausing MgCl2/brine dust control 48–72 hours before a forecast 2-inch and brooming the haul road/pad cut our chloride pops — “hold dust suppressant 48h pre-storm,” then resume after spot ECs drop; minor caveat: it’s less effective if you can’t slow trucks — @taylor_jensen47, have you tried that?
We cut a narrow grated trench drain across the haul-road throat and hose it to a lined 3k-gal tote; it grabs the ‘first flush’ so the berms don’t get overtopped, and a $60 inline EC probe texts us when it spikes. Minor caveat: leave a small bypass notch so you don’t pond the pad if the tote tops — @e_brooks34, tried this setup?
Quick example: we stopped using chloride-based dust suppressant within 150 ft of the exit gate and switched to a narrow band of lignin there; our “no Cl at the gate” rule cut spikes at a spring below a Marcellus pad. It’s a bit slick when saturated, so we keep that band short and reapply after heavy traffic — @Kara, have you tried a localized product swap?
One thing that helped us was cutting a temporary clean‑water bypass above the pad so uphill runoff never touches the access surface; then the volume your berms see is just what falls on‑site. It pairs well with @jward_75’s capture idea because it shrinks the “first flush” and keeps EC blips manageable. If digging’s tight near utilities, we’ve used sandbag arcs with a strip of poly as a quick bypass — speed bumps for water.