Data Quality Objectives and Environmental Sampling: On-the-Spot Expert Help Using Software Tools, 1999 Environmental Conference Proceedings

James R. Davidson, Jr., Nancy L. Hassig & Richard O. Gilbert

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

John E. Wilson

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

One of the major obstacles to planning and implementing an environmental sampling program is assembling the necessary software, technical information, and guidance documents in one place so that the time spent can be focused on the problem rather than searching for information and implementation software. This paper discusses two tools to help select and implement environmental sampling plans.

SampTOOL and Visual Sample Plan (VSP), two software tools under development by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will be demonstrated. Both tools support a Data Quality Objectives (DQO) approach to ensure the right type, quality, and quantity of data are gathered to permit confident decisions about remediation and environmental characterization needs. SampTOOL is a web-based software application for determining the best sampling design for certain types of environmental media contamination problems. SampTOOL is structured as a decision tree (flow chart) that can be accessed interactively over the Internet in conjunction with hard copy flow charts. Users are posed a series of questions about their site, the problem to be resolved with sampling data, and availability of supplemental information. SampTOOL uses the responses to narrow down the feasible sampling designs suited for this problem and identifies the best-matched design for the problem and sampling constraints.

Once a sampling plan has been selected, Visual Sample Plan, a stand-alone Windows-95 program, can be used to overlay the recommend sampling design on a map of the site and the actual number and placement of the samples can be derived. Since this is done on-screen, the user can immediately see the implications of the various assumptions that go into a sampling design and interactively experiment with different scenarios. Finally, the sampling coordinates of the selected design can be exported to a GPS system to facilitate fieldwork.