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5. Special Report

Title:	Establishing a relationship between passive soil vapor and grab sample techniques for determining volatile organic compounds
Authors:	U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station Hewitt, Alan D. (Alan Dole)
Keywords:	Contamination In-vial methods Trichloroethylene Grab samples Soil vapor techniques Volatile organic compounds Soils Soil pollution
Publisher:	Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (U.S.) Engineer Research and Development Center (U.S.)
Series/Report no.:	Special report (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (U.S.)) ; 96-14.
Description:	Special Report Abstract: A passive soil vapor and an in-vial sample handling and analysis method were compared for estimating volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in the near-surface vadose zone. These two methods of VOC site characterization, although very different operationally, established very similar trends for trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination. The correlation (r^2 = 0.944) of the results from these two methods shows a much better agreement than what has been reported between comparisons of in-vial methods (or solvent immersion) and conventional soil sample collection and handling methods often used for site characterization activities. The strong correlation between these two methods and from grab samples taken 15 cm apart indicates that this analyte is homogeneously distributed as compared to metals and semivolatile organic compounds. For contaminants such as TCE, soil vapor measurement technologies offer a promising means of estimating subsurface concentrations in locations were grab samples cannot be easily obtained.
Rights:	Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/11681/12174
Appears in Collections:	Special Report