Stuart A. Smith

Stuart’s interest in ground water dates back to his teenage years when, while pulling and setting pumps for his father’s rural Ohio plumbing business, he literally had the black and brown products of well microorganisms on his hands.  Later, that experience led to his pioneering work in the application of biofouling methods in ground water system analysis. He also listened to the water cascading in the rock wells of his home country and wondered about the flow of water underground.

Today, Stuart is one the nation’s foremost experts on the diagnosis and treatment of well problems and performance deterioration.  He is a Certified Ground Water Professional by the National Ground Water Association, a Registered Geologist with the State of Kentucky, and has been consulting in the ground water field since 1983.  In addition to his consulting career, he has also worked for the National Water Well Association (now NGWA), developed the curriculum and instructed ground water science and technology at Wright State University (where he developed portions of the WSU IRIS distance-learning hydrogeology training program), and taught biology courses and advised hydrogeological engineering projects at Ohio Northern University.  He has spoken on well maintenance, rehabilitation, and microbiology topics in Argentina, Australia, England, and throughout North America.  In recent years, he has become active in the effort to equip professional water sector capabilities and to develop water supplies in Tanzania and other developing countries.

He is the author or co-author of numerous works, including contributions to well maintenance and rehabilitation practice such as Methods for Monitoring Iron and Manganese Biofouling in Water Supply Wells and Evaluation and Restoration of Water Supply Wells (AWWA Research Foundation), Monitoring and Remediation Wells:  Problem Prevention, Maintenance and Rehabilitation (CRC Press), Operation and Maintenance of Extraction and Injection Wells at HTRW Sites (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with the late George Alford and Roy Leach), and the first manual on the subject in Spanish (with the late Miguel Gariboglio), Corrosión e incrustación microbiológia en sistemas de captación y conducción de agua: aspectos teóricos y aplicados.  Most recently, he and Allen Comeskey have contributed Sustainable Wells: Maintenance, Problem Prevention, and Rehabilitation (CRC Press).  He is also a coauthor of both the 1992 Australian Drilling Manual and the 1997 edition of its successor, Drilling (CRC Press), a major contributor to AWWA’s Manual M21, Groundwater and ASCE’s new International Manual of Well Hydraulics, and a principal author-editor of NGWA's Manual of Water Well Construction Practices, the basis for the new ANSI/NGWA 01 water well construction standard.  He has contributed to Water Well Journal, Water Technology, and National Drillers Buyers Guide/National Driller.

Stuart earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with majors in Biology and Earth Science from Wittenberg University in 1977 and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Environmental Biology from The Ohio State University in 1984.

Professional affiliations:

• National Ground Water Association (Rural Water Subcommittee, SDWA, Ground Water Disinfection Rule and Well disinfection Task Forces, Microbial Ground-Water Quality and Developing Countries Interest Groups)
• American Water Works Association (Groundwater Committee, Ohio Section and Section Small Systems Development and Water for People Committees)
• Standard Methods joint technical group for Section 9240, Iron and Sulfur Bacters, chairman through 22nd edition.
• American Society for Testing and Materials (Subcommittee D18.21 on ground water investigations)
• Sandusky River Watershed Coalition (past steering committee and water/wastewater committee chair)
• American Society for Microbiology
• Ohio Water Well Association

Click here to contact Stuart Smith