A Laboratory Evaluation of Ground Water Sampling Mechanisms

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Abstract
The reliability of ground water monitoring information can be assured by careful selection of sample handling and analytical procedures. Sampling mechanism selection has been studied far less than analytical methodologies (Scalf et al. 1981, Nacht 1983). This study has as its primary goal the identification of reliable sampling mechanisms for purgeable organic compounds and gas‐sensitive chemical parameters in ground water. Carefully controlled sampling experiments were run to investigate the error contributed to chemical results due to sampling mechanism alone. Fourteen commercial sampling devices in five mechanistic categories were evaluated for their performance in sample collection for solution parameters, dissolved gases and purgeable organic compounds. Systematic errors related to sampling mechanism can reduce the accuracy of monitoring data by factors of two to three times that involved in analytical procedures.