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PGWA Congratulates Ken Kerstner on Becoming a Master Ground Water Contractor by Todd Giddings, Education Committee Chairman PGWA member Ken Kerstner is the 73rd Master Ground Water Contractor certified by the NGWA. The designation of Master Ground Water Contractor (MGWC) recognizes those who have proven exceptional knowledge and dedication in water well construction and pump installation. To take the MGWC exam, candidates must be certified in all 6 drilling and 3 water system exam categories except for exams M – Augering and Monitoring, N – Well servicing and maintenance, and O – Ground water heat pumps. Candidates must also have five years of full-time experience in well construction or pump installation in an operational or supervisory capacity. A four-hour time period is given for the exam which consists of 50 essay questions. The MGWC exam covers aspects of business, management, and all types of drilling and pump installation. A minimum score of 70 percent is required to receive a passing grade. Ken Kerstner is now the 5th MGWC from Pennsylvania, and joins MGWC’s Chuck Eichelberger (retired), Dan Harry (retired), Joe Proch, and Herb Wilson. The PGWA congratulates Ken on his achievement of the MGWC designation. The Q & A article below profiles Ken, and is reprinted by permission from the October 2006 issue of the Water Well Journal. Ken passed the MGWC exam after this article went to press.
Every month, Water Well
Journal interviews a ground water professional who is certified — whether he or
she is part of the NGWA well construction and pump installation program, a
certified ground water professional, WWJ: Tell us about your business. What does it do, how many people does it employ? Ken Kerstner: It’s Kerstner Well and Pump Service in Easton, Pennsylvania. We do well drilling, pump sales and service, and waste water pumps. I’m the owner and operator and have no employees. Some of the drilling I do as a subcontractor. WWJ: How long have you have worked there? Ken: I’ve had my own business for 30 years and I have 15 years with another company prior to that. WWJ: How long have you been certified? Ken: I’m in my fifth year. WWJ: Why did you decide to become certified? Ken: I became certified to distinguish myself from my competition. I think it demonstrates to my customers that I know what I’m talking about and what I’m doing, and I think that builds confidence in that the job is going to be done correctly. WWJ: How has certification helped your business and career? Ken: First off, it’s built my confidence with what I’m doing. I’m willing to take on more complex projects after I took the test. It helped me learn. If you miss a question, you can go back and research and find out what the answer is. So it’s building my self-confidence and my learning. It’s also helped me to build relationships with some engineering firms and government officials — local people. When you know the right people, your name gets out there and you get a lot of tips and recommendations. That’s actually where I get a fair amount of my work. I’ll say 15 percent to 20 percent comes from that. The engineering firms especially like to see people who are taking the initiative to be certified. The government people listen to people who have credentials. WWJ: How do you market your certified status?
Ken:
I market it in my advertising. In the yellow pages I have that I am certified.
All of my business cards have the designation also. And I make sure I have it on
any proposal I send out. Customers sometimes call in if they’re searching for a
well driller, WWJ: What is your preferred way to get continuing education points? Ken: I prefer to go to the state conventions in Pennsylvania. We have two conferences, a winter conference and a summer field conference. Also, some of our suppliers offer pump schools every year, so I always go to those as a refresher. The Pennsylvania Ground Water Association gives us the opportunities to learn, especially at the summer field conference because we have equipment there and we actually drill a well and do the grouting, etc. WWJ: Do you personally place a value on continuing education? Why? Ken: Yes I do, most definitely. Education is an ongoing thing. You should never stop learning. I read all of the journals that come in. I get three or four of them. Technology and some of the things the industry does now are moving along pretty quickly. I think it’s good to stay up with that. WWJ: Have you thought about taking the Master Ground Water Contractor exam? If so, why? Ken: I am planning on taking the Master Ground Water Contractor exam. I believe we have only four MGWCs in Pennsylvania. I think it’s just a good thing to do because I take pride in my work — in doing quality work. WWJ: Has your company diversified into any areas in the last three years? If so, what? Ken: I purchased a SIMCO 2800 HSHT rotary and I use that for limited access projects. I use that mostly on existing homes that need wells deepened or to replace or repair an existing well. In our area we have small villages and some of the lots are very small. Not all of them had wells originally drilled years ago, so when you get that call that they want a well, you need something small that can get in. It filled a niche that no one else was doing. We’ve also started hydrofracing some wells. I use a subcontractor for that, but we do offer that. So far we’ve been successful. I’ve also invested in a Well-Vu camera, and we do videos of existing well casings, etc., when there are problems. That well camera gets me a fair amount of work. We take a video of (the well), show it to the customer, and explain to them what they’re looking at and what’s going on. It’s a very good tool. WWJ: What do you think is a critical issue facing the industry? Ken: One thing we’re addressing in Pennsylvania is that we’re getting a lot of bad PR because we don’t require casing grouting and well grouting. There are a lot of bad wells being put in and I think that’s a real problem. I’ve seen a lot of leaking casing and sub-grade casing being put in. I think that’s an important thing facing our industry in Pennsylvania. I think the other thing is the expansion of public water systems. I think that’s brought on somewhat by the drilling industry in Pennsylvania getting a bad rap. We do have some bad wells because we don’t have regulations and enforcement, but I think the expansion of public water systems is a problem for the industry as a whole. For more information on NGWA’s certification programs, call (800) 551-7379 or go to www.ngwa. org/certification/certification.cfm. WWJ
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