PREFACE
Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on December 28, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: October 31, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1984-0267.pr001
THE IMPLEMENTATION
of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) has underscored a number of the weaknesses in our capabilities to measure the chemical characteristics of wastes. We are now being called upon to identify and quantify with unprecedented sensitivity hundreds of chemicals found in many types of materials within waste sites, near discharges of hazardous contaminants, and in the surrounding environments. Extrapolations from a limited number of measurements must indicate the general environmental conditions near waste sites. The measurements have to be made faster and cheaper than ever before, with the precision and bias of each measurement fully documented. Thus, the technical challenges facing the monitoring community are substantial. The progress to date in responding to these challenges has been impressive. Many governmental, industrial, and academic laboratories have become equipped with a new generation of computer-based instruments, and they bear little resemblance to the laboratories of a decade ago. Field monitoring activities are becoming far more sophisticated in design and in implementation. Remote sensing tools guide our sampling efforts, and computer models help interpret our data. But we have only begun to exploit the promise of technology to penetrate the earth, to discriminate among molecular structures, and to allow us to choose those few samples that will adequately represent the whole. A great deal of operational monitoring activity is underway throughout the nation while the regulatory basis for this activity continues to expand. Many of the monitoring requirements and the associated research needs to support these efforts are clear although new technical issues are constantly emerging as more practical problems unfold. The monitoring responsibility rests with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the states, and the operators of disposal sites. However, the necessary research can only be accomplished through the concerted efforts of a far larger number of organizations. Perhaps the most neglected aspect in our haste to advance rapidly in assessing and cleaning up waste sites has been the technical basis for the design of environmental sampling programs. The costs of analyzing the large numbers of samples being collected is now causing more careful consideraix
Schweitzer and Santolucito; Environmental Sampling for Hazardous Wastes ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on December 28, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: October 31, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1984-0267.pr001
tion of the importance of each sample. A second concern relates to the availability of appropriate sampling equipment and techniques. Sample integrity, with particular attention to cross contamination among samples, preservation, and general handling procedures, has at last been recognized as a key to obtaining reliable monitoring data. Since both sampling and analysis comprise the complete chemical measurement system, the quality assurance aspects of sampling programs, and particularly external evaluations and audits, are no less important than the elaborate quality assurance measures that have received so much attention within the analytical laboratories. In December 1983, the Committee on Environmental Improvement of the American Chemical Society published in Analytical Chemistry "Principles of Environmental Analysis." That paper emphasized the importance of sound quality assurance procedures for chemical analyses in the laboratory. Little attention was devoted to sampling concerns. This book addresses some of the important considerations in designing and implementing sampling programs, with particular attention to surface and subsurface sampling for hazardous wastes. Furthermore, it reflects the experiences of federal and state agencies and of academic and industrial organizations and provides a good introduction to the subject. However, considerable additional research and synthesis of experiences are clearly in order given the costs, and more importantly the environmental stakes, involved in obtaining reliable monitoring information. We hope this book will stimulate greater attention to ensuring that the samples taken to the laboratory or analyzed in the field are indeed the appropriate samples for characterizing contamination problems.
GLENN E. SCHWEITZER JOHN A. SANTOLUCITO U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Las Vegas, Nevada August 1984
Schweitzer and Santolucito; Environmental Sampling for Hazardous Wastes ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
