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FIELD SAMPLING OF RESIDUAL AVIATION GASOLINE IN SANDY SOIL
Citation:
Ostendorf, D. W., L. E. Leach*, E. S. Hinlein, AND Y. Xie. FIELD SAMPLING OF RESIDUAL AVIATION GASOLINE IN SANDY SOIL. Ground Water Monitoring Review 11(2):107-120, (1991).
Impact/Purpose:
To investigate two complimentary field sampling methods for the determination of residual aviation gasoline content in the contaminated capillary fringe of a fine, uniform, sandy soil.
Description:
Two complimentary field sampling methods for the determination of residual aviation gasoline content in the contaminated capillary fringe of a fine, uniform, sandy soil were investigated. The first method featured filed extrusion of core barrels into pint size Mason jars, while the second consisted of laboratory partitioning of intact stainless steel core sleeves. The barrel extrusion procedure involved jar headspace sampling in a nitrogen filled glove box, which delineated the 0.7 m thick residually contaminated interval for subsequent core sleeve withdrawal from adjacent boreholes. Soil samples removed from the Mason jars (in the field) and sleeve segments (in the laboratory) were subjected to methylene chloride extraction and gas chromatographic analysis to compare their aviation gasoline content. The barrel extrusion sampling method yielded a vertical profile with0.10 m resolution over an essentially continuous 5 m interval from the ground surface to the water table. The sleeve segment alternative yielded a more resolved 0.03 m vertical profile over a shorter 0.8 m interval through the capillary fringe. The two methods delivered precise estimates of the vertically integrated mass of aviation gasoline at a give horizontal location, and a consistent view of the vertical profile as well. In the latter regard, a 0.2 m thick lens of maximum contamination was found in the center of the capillary fringe, where moisture filled all voids smaller than the mean pore size. The maximum peak was resolved by the core sleeve data, but was partially obscured by the barrel extrusion observations, so that replicate barrels or a half pint Mason jar size should be considered for data supporting vertical transport analyses in the absence of sleeve partitions.
