February Newsletter

I started my career in mining in the late 1980s. We were collecting samples of dust from rotary air blast drill rigs in the Western Australian outback, and my boss at the time told me that the sampling was the most important part of the job because if we did it wrong then everything else based on the analysis of that sample would be wrong too! The same applies to environmental monitoring. So it’s important we keep abreast of how to collect samples both safely and correctly.

Whilst many people remain wedded to traditional sampling methods, the world has actually been changing quite a lot. In the area of groundwater sampling: grab sampling started with bailers on strings back in the 1990s, these evolved to discrete interval samplers, snap samplers, hydrasleeves, absorbents and passive diffusion bags. Low flow sampling became the go to in the 1990s on the back of some extensive research out of the US, this lead to broad adoption of pneumatic pumps (bladder and double valve) as well as 12 volt submersible pumps, peristaltic pumps and some mechanical piston ones too.

Surface water, started with bottles on poles, depth triggered samplers, discrete interval samplers peristaltic pumps and auto samplers. Recently we have seen the adoption of drone boats and aerial drones for surface water applications, collecting samples in a safer manner than those collected manually.

The challenge has become what to use when. Sadly, price and haste often drive decisions over precision and accuracy. It is very easy to collect misleading samples. HydroTerra is passionate about having truth in data, in order to assist the industry we have signed a partnership agreement with ALGA to develop training in this area, our first focus being groundwater sampling. Secondly, we continue to provide bespoke consultancy advice to our clients in technology integration through monitoring system design services.

Richard