Monitoring Well Installation, Purging, and Sampling Techniques ‐ Part 1: Conceptualizations

Commonly employed techniques for the installation, purging, and sampling of monitoring wells are examined. The degree to which hollow-stem augering disturbs the near-borehole environment, and how this may result in the movement of contaminated solids or fluids from one stratum to another is discussed. The desirability of driving temporary casing to shield one stratum from another, and to improve the general quality of the monitoring well installation (especially the effectiveness of the filter pack emplaced), is argued. A call for further testing of sampling devices, based on limited field comparisons and a lack of reports of conclusive tests elsewhere, is given.