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SAMPLING PROTOCOLS TO SUPPORT CLEANUP DECISIONS FOR CONTAMINANTS IN GROUND WATER
Citation:
FORD, R. SAMPLING PROTOCOLS TO SUPPORT CLEANUP DECISIONS FOR CONTAMINANTS IN GROUND WATER. Presented at Site Specific Advisory Boards Chair's Meeting, Groundwater Workshop, Santa Fe, NM, September 06, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The ability to make reliable decisions about the extent of subsurface contamination and approaches to restoration of contaminated ground water is dependent on the development of an accurate conceptual site model (CSM). The accuracy of the CSM is dependent on the quality of site characterization data that defines the subsurface geochemistry and the distribution of site contaminants between ground water and aquifer sediments. For characterization of ground-water plumes, the most common deficiency of site-specific data includes: 1) collection of samples from a monitoring network that uses wells installed with inappropriate methods or in locations that do not capture the predominant transport pathways, 2) collection of samples at inadequate frequencies or durations to capture short- and long-term dynamics in hydrologic fluctuations and subsurface biogeochemistry, and 3) collection of samples using collection and preservation protocols that fail to preserve the in-situ geochemical conditions at depth. This presentation will provide an overview of techniques for insuring acquisition of appropriate data, specifically highlighting problems encountered at sites where the subsurface redox chemistry is reduced where exposure to oxygen can compromise sample integrity.