No abstract

Observations of colloidal movement under natural conditions and during pumping were conducted at several field sites. Results indicate that several modifications to present sampling protocols may improve the representativeness and cost effectiveness of obtaining ground water samples for assessing the total mobile contaminant load. These modifications include the installation of dedicated sampling devices, limited purging of the well prior to sampling, sampling at a flow rate of 100 mL/min, and no filtering of samples. This sampling approach can result in significant cost savings while providing the best possible water samples.

Micropurge sampling of ground water wells has been suggested as a possible replacement to traditional purge and sample methods. To compare methods, duplicate ground water samples were collected at two field sites using iraditional and micropurge methods. Samples were analyzed for selected organic and inorganic constituents, and the results were compared statistically. Analysis of the data using the nonparametric sign test indicates that within a 95 percent confidence interval, there was no significant difference between the two methods for the site contaminants and the majority of analytes. These analytical results were supported by visual observations with the colloidal borescope, which demonstrated impacts on the flow system in the well when using traditional sampling methods. Under selected circumstances, the results suggest replacing traditional sampling with micropurging based on reliability, cost, and waste minimization.