COMPARISON OF SOIL SAMPLING DEVICES USED FOR SAMPLING SUBMERGED SOILS

Environmental sampling designed for soil chemical analyses requires pr ecise procedural collection methods. Furthermore, soils which are subm erged, represent an enigmatic sampling situation as the sample is with drawn through the overlaying liquid layer. Contamination may arise fro m the liquid as well as solid material above the collected sample. A p rocedural problem is that close-faced, lined samplers do not provide e nough axial friction to maintain the Sample within the sampler. Since the choice of proper sampling equipment is critical in site assessment s, we compared two types of soil probes in this study. Both samples we re nickel (Ni)-chromium (Cr) plated having 2-cm diameter bores. One wa s an open-faced slotted sampler while the other was a closed-faced sam pler with a PETG copolyester liner. The open-faced slotted sampler had no significantly different Ni or Cr content than did the PETG-lined p robe and maintained the soil within the sampling tube.