|
U.S. EPA Superfund Innovative
Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program
Environmental Technology Verification Report
Clements Associates, Inc
JMC Environmentalist's Subsoil Probe
This document is available in the Adobe Acrobat PDF Format.
Click here for information
about Portable Document File (PDF) Formats.
or
Click here
to directly download the Acrobat Reader.
(To view the PDF, it is
recommended that you use the latest version of Acrobat Reader.)
Environmental Technology Verification Report, Clements Associates,
Inc
JMC Environmentalist's Subsoil Probe (2.063KB)
Abstract
The Environmentalist's Subsoil Probe (ESP) is a sampling
tool that is able to collect unconsolidated subsurface material at depths
that depend on the capacity of the advancement platform. The ESP can be
advanced into the subsurface with direct-push platforms, drill rigs, or
manual methods. The ESP was demonstrated in May and June 1997 at two sites.
One being the Small Business Administration (SBA) site in Albert City,
Iowa, and the other at the Chemical Sales Company (CSC) site in Denver,
Colorado. These two sites were chosen because of there wide range of volatile
organic compound (VOC) concentrations and because each has a distinct
soil type. The ESP was compared to a reference subsurface soil sampling
method (the hollow-stem auger drilling and split-spoon sampling) in terms
of these parameters:
- sample recovery,
- VOC concentrations in recovered samples,
- sample integrity,
- reliability and throughput, and
- cost.
This demonstration indicated the following performance
and cost characteristics for the ESP:
- compared to the hollow-stem auger drilling and split-spoon
soil sampling method, average sample recoveries for the ESP were higher
for both the clay and sandy soils tested.
- A statistical difference between the VOC concentrations
measured was detected for one of the seven ESP and reference sampling
method pairs collected at the SBA site and for one of the eleven sampling
pairs collected at the CSC site. The data also suggests that the reference
sampling method tends to yield higher results than the ESP in sampling
fine-grained soils.
- In two of the twelve integrity test samples, the integrity
of a lined chamber of the ESP was not preserved when the sampler was
advanced through highly contaminated clay soils.
- In the first attempt, the reliability of ESP to collect
a sample was higher than that of the reference sampling method in both
clay and sandy soils. When using two operators, the average sample retrieval
time for the ESP was quicker than the retrieval time for the reference
method in clay soil but slower in sandy soil.
- The costs for collecting soil samples using the ESP
was lower than the reference sampling method for both clay soil and
sandy soil sites. The cost depends on the amount of samples required,
the sample retrieval time, soil type, soils depth, and the disposal
costs associated with drill cuttings.
Back to SITE
Home Page
Posted October 1, 1999
|
