Understanding NSF/ANSI/CAN Standard 60 Certification

What is it and what does it mean to drilling fluids?

By Todd Tannehill

You get a job and are directed to use only National Sanitation Foundation (NSF)-certified products for an
upcoming drilling project. So, what does that mean?

In this column, I am going to take you past the NSF logo on a label or Technical Data Sheet (TDS) and explain what NSF certification is, and more importantly, what NSF is not.

This column is intended to be a brief primer on the NSF and not all-inclusive. I encourage readers to visit the official NSF website and educate yourselves on the history of the foundation.

What Is NSF?

NSF develops public health standards and services that assist regulators to protect food, water, consumer products, and eventually the environment. Its tagline is “The Public Health and Safety Organization”—and I feel that sums up and fits its mission pretty well.

To summarize some of its history found on the website, the first NSF standards were for food service equipment in 1952. Walter Snyder, a grocery store employee in Ohio, saw a need for sanitary standards in the food service industry.

For my college football fan readers, don’t go blaming Ohio State (and Go Bucks!) as Walter co-founded the nonprofit while attending the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. The other two co-founders were the school’s dean, Henry Vaughan, and Walter’s professor, Nathan Sinai.

The certification and the organization has expanded its coverage over the years; today it is broken into the following segments:

• Food and beverage
• Water systems
• Life sciences
• Nutrition and wellness
• Transportation.

NSF and Water Wells

Cutting to the chase, the NSF certification for today’s water systems is written into water well drilling regulations and guidelines in most U.S. states. The certification logo on products allows homeowners, contractors, and regulatory bodies to be confident in products being used in our industry. The NSF has
also expanded beyond North America into the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, and more.

While the NSF has many different certification programs that cover different industries and subsets, the drilling fluid segment is covered under NSF/ANSI/CAN Standard 60 that focuses on Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals—Health Effects.

The standard:

Covers corrosion and scale control chemicals; pH adjustment, softening, precipitation, and sequestering chemicals; coagulation and flocculation chemicals; well drilling products;
disinfection and oxidation chemicals; and miscellaneous and specialty chemicals for the treatment of drinking water. Standard 60 addresses the health effects implications of treatment chemicals and related impurities. (www.nsf.org/nsf-standards/standards-portfolio/water-wastewater-standards)

For a manufacturer to obtain certification of a product, it must follow the following steps:

• Application
• Submission
• Review
• On-site audit
• Testing
• Technical evaluation
• Certification.

The process can be time-consuming and expensive for manufacturers. The fourth item on the list, on-site auditing, means that it is the manufacturing facility and the product that carry the certification, not just the manufacturer. If a company produces a product at two plants, it requires the need for additional listings.

For drilling fluids, polymers, and additives, the big question on whether to pursue certification is summed up by a basic question: Can the product cause or produce bacteria? If it can, there are two choices: look for alternative forms of the product or continue without certification.

The latter decision would be followed by the question of what drilling segment the product is intended for. A product used in horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is less likely to need the NSF certification, but in fairness, many items are certified due to drilling segment crossover.

Examples of the above-mentioned thought process can be found in our drilling foams, detergents, polyanionic cellulose (PAC), and other additives. While we have products certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN Standard 60 for all of these, there are many in the industry that are not.

It is important to note that some of the most environmentally safe drilling fluids, such as Xanthan Gum, cannot be NSF/ANSI/CAN 60 as it is biodegradable. While this product is not accepted in many states in water well drilling, it is an essential fluid used in HDD.

The certification may also include a defined concentration, so while it is considered safe for drinking water under the standard, it is still not “chuggable” at full strength. In other words, common sense must prevail.

______________________________________________

I encourage you all to visit the National Sanitation Foundation’s website to find out more information. There is also a complete list of NSF-certified well drilling products located at info.nsf.org/Certified/PwsChemicals.

Todd Tannehill, based out of northeast Ohio, is the North American Director for the Drilling Products division of CETCO. Minus a brief hiatus, Tannehill has been with CETCO since 2005 and is well known in the industry for providing strong technical support to contractors, distributors, and engineers. He is a past board member of the National Ground Water Association and can be reached at todd.tannehill@mineralstech.com.