Soil sampling equipment

Additional information regarding applicator-boom width, spray-tank capacity, and the wheelbase of any vehicle-mounted soil sampling equipment used during the study is also required to ensure that the field plot design accommodates size restrictions of field equipment. 

Large-scale soil sampling equipment (augers, corers, split spoons, and core barrel samplers)... 

Several existing protocols require a solvent (acetone, methanol, isopropanol) rinse as part of equipment decontamination for VOC sampling and 1 10 percent hydrochloric or nitric acid rinse for metal analysis sampling (DOE, 1996 USACE, 1994). These practices, successful as they may be in removing trace level contaminants, create more problems than they are worth. Organic solvents are absorbed by the polymer materials used in sampling equipment construction and appear as interferences in the VOC analysis. Acid destroys the metal surfaces of soil sampling equipment and induces corrosion. The use of solvents and acids is a safety issue and it also creates additional waste streams for disposal. 

To decontaminate small-scale soil sampling equipment made of metal (scoops,... 

To decontaminate soil sampling equipment, we follow these steps ... 

Remove gross contamination from soil sampling equipment by dry-brushing. 

Apart from these samples, some other quality control samples such as duplicate samples and equipment field blanks are used by different laboratories. Duplicate samples are taken from the same collection site to determine the variability of results for the same sample after the AMS analysis. Generally, one duplicate sample should be collected for every 20 samples. Equipment blanks are collected using laboratory-provided water, which has been run over the decontaminated soil sampling equipment. These samples are used to determine the efficiency of cleaning procedures for soil sampling equipment. 

Environmental monitoring of chloroacetanilides requires methods that have the capability to distinguish between complex arrays of related residues. The two example methods detailed here for water monitoring meet this requirement, but the method for metabolites requires sophisticated mass spectral equipment for the detection of directly injected water samples. In the near term, some laboratories may need to modify this method by incorporation of an extraction/concentration step, such as SPE, that would allow for concentration of the sample, so that a less sensitive and, correspondingly, less expensive, mass spectral detector can be used. However, laboratories may want to consider purchasing a sensitive instrument rather than spending time on additional wet chemistry procedures. In the future, sensitive instrumentation may be less expensive and available to all laboratories. Work is under way to expand the existing multi-residue methods to include determination of additional chloroacetanilides and their metabolites in both water and soil samples. 

One of the disadvantages of early phosphorus surveys was not long ago, the need to obtain a relatively large number of heavy soil samples, which had to be taken to a chemical laboratory for analysis. In later studies, however, use has been made of portable equipment that makes it possible to analyze, even in the field, very small samples, and statistically appraise the analytical results (Persson 1997). 

Radon concentrations were determined using an RM-2 portable soil radon monitoring system while in situ soil permeability values were determined using Radon-JOK portable sampling equipment. 

Two types of kits are discussed in this section, sample collection kits and field test kits. Sample collection kits will generally contain all sample containers, materials, supplies, and forms necessary to perform sample collection activities. Field test kits contain the equipment and supplies necessary to perform field safety screening and rapid field testing of the air, water, and/or soil. Sample collection kits will generally be less expensive to construct than field test kits. Sample collection kits can be pre-positioned throughout a system, while the more expensive field kits may be assigned to specific site characterization teams or personnel. 

Another method (EPA 3611) that focuses on the to separation of groups or fractions with similar mobility in soils is based on the use of alumina and silica gel (EPA 3630) that are used to fractionate the hydrocarbon into ahphatic and aromatic fractions. A gas chromatograph equipped with a boiling-point column (nonpolar capillary column) is used to analyze whole soil samples as weU as the aliphatic and aromatic fractions to resolve and quantify the fate-and-transport fractions. The method is versatile and performance based and therefore can be modified to accommodate data quality objectives. 

As with the studies on the herbicide spray equipment testing grids at Eglln AFB, Florida, the studies of the biodegradation plots confirmed the presence and persistence of TCDD. Analysis of soil samples collected from the Utah plots in 1978 indicated that 85 percent of the amount of TCDD originally extracted In 1972 could be recovered, suggesting that TCDD applied subsurface was minimally disappearing. 

Danesi et al.96 applied SIMS, in addition to X-ray fluorescence imaging, by using a microbeam (p-XRF) and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analyzer (SEM-EDXRF) to characterize soil samples and to identify small DU particles collected in Kosovo locations where depleted uranium (DU) ammunition was employed during the 1999 Balkan conflict. Knowledge of DU particles is needed as a basis for the assessment of the potential environmental and health impacts of military use of DU, since it provides information on possible resuspension and inhalation. The measurements indicated spots where hundreds of thousands of particles may be present in a few mg of contaminated soil. The particle size distribution showed that most of the DU particles were < 5 pm in diameter and more than 50 % of the particles had a diameter of < 1.5 p.m.96... 

In the course of remediation projects we often need to sample from the bottom and sidewalls of excavation pits. A variation of excavation pit sampling is sampling from test pits and trenches. Test pits are small excavations usually made with a backhoe for a purpose of collecting a subsurface soil sample. A trench is a long and narrow excavation originating from a pipeline removal or placed with earth moving equipment for exploratory purposes. 

Analysis by Gas Chromatography. All soil samples were analyzed by gas chromatography using a Dohrmann instrument equipped with a microcoulometric detector and an 18-inch, 5% Dow 11 column. This column did not separate the individual pesticides present, indicating only the total halide content of the sample (10). All results were calculated in terms of DDT and based on the dry weight of the sample. 

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