What are the main objections of regulators against the low-flow sampling system
What are main objections of regulators against the low-flow sampling system?
The two things that I have encountered with regulatory agency’s concerns about using or switching over to low-flow sampling from traditional methods is one, will I miss anything based on where I position the pump in the well, and two, is my sample a worst case scenario sample. The first question has been answered pretty well because we know that based on the studies that have been done placing the pump almost anywhere in the well screen we get essentially the same results if we pump long enough. So that issue of missing contaminants has been well answered and there have been plenty of studies and empirical data to support it. Do low-flow samples really give you a worst case scenario? They do not because they don’t mobilize contaminants and they don’t mobilize articulate matter that aren’t normally mobile under ambient groundwater flow. Therefore they don’t represent the worst case scenario, but they are really good indication of the actual total mobile contaminant load at that point where the well is located. Those are the two biggest concerns that I see from regulatory agencies. Beyond that regulators also generally have some very specific guidelines and issues such as drawdown, flow rate, and so on.
The two things that I have encountered with regulatory agency’s concerns about using or switching over to low-flow sampling from traditional methods is one, will I miss anything based on where I position the pump in the well, and two, is my sample a worst case scenario sample. The first question has been answered pretty well because we know that based on the studies that have been done placing the pump almost anywhere in the well screen we get essentially the same results if we pump long enough. So that issue of missing contaminants has been well answered and there have been plenty of studies and empirical data to support it. Do low-flow samples really give you a worst case scenario? They do not because they don’t mobilize contaminants and they don’t mobilize articulate matter that aren’t normally mobile under ambient groundwater flow. Therefore they don’t represent the worst case scenario, but they are really good indication of the actual total mobile contaminant load at that point where the well is located. Those are the two biggest concerns that I see from regulatory agencies. Beyond that regulators also generally have some very specific guidelines and issues such as drawdown, flow rate, and so on.