Dig It

Some things you don’t think about until they stop working. Then you get a trickle from your shower head. Suddenly, all you can think about is what’s happening with the pipes underground.

There’s money to be made in invisible industries. That’s true if you’re pumping water from a well — a technology as old as civilization itself — or driving engineered fluids underground to drill for oil.

Christiaan’s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch both work in industries that sit mostly out of sight — below ground, behind fences, or buried in technical jargon — but when they’re needed, they’re really needed.

Scott Russo is co-owner and water specialist at Waterboys LLC, a water well services company serving residential, commercial, and agricultural clients in Acadiana.

Scott Russo, Co-Owner of Waterboys LLC. They dig and maintain water wells for residential and commercial clients in Acadiana and are working toward providing a solar powered well that would get clients off the muncipal water supply and electricity grid

Most people get their water from large public or private utility systems. But more than 23 million U.S. households rely on private groundwater wells for their drinking water. That’s about 15 percent of the U.S. population who aren’t connected to municipal water systems and must maintain their own sources.

Waterboys, founded in 2020, offers well drilling, pump installation, maintenance, and emergency repair — often with Scott himself answering the phone at all hours. Water is a round-the-clock need, so Scott is always on call. Scott grew up in Kaplan, studied geology, lived overseas and in Las Vegas, and eventually found his way back home and into the water well industry.

$Zach West, President of Downhole Chemical Solutions, a major player in advancing the science of fracking, with over 200 employees their R&D division is headquartered in Lafayette.$

Zach West, President of Downhole Chemical Solutions, a major player in advancing the science of fracking, with over 200 employees their R&D division is headquartered in Lafayette.

Zach West is president of Downhole Chemical Solutions, a Lafayette-based company operating in the hydraulic fracturing industry. Downhole plays a big role in the hydraulic part of fracking, providing the tech and engineering needed to get oil and gas out of the ground. The fracking boom revived the domestic oil industry over the last decade. The hydraulic fracturing services industry alone is estimated at more than $40 billion in size in 2025.

Downhole is an employee owned company with over 200 people on staff and serves a mix of major and mid-sized energy operators. Zach grew up in central Louisiana in a family of engineers, earned degrees in chemical engineering and business, and returned to Lafayette to build the company.