Soil Gas Monitoring - The Current State of the Art

Soil gas investigations have become a key tool in evaluating the extent of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) contamination in soil and groundwater. This is used to ascertain the extent of contamination as well as to evaluate the remediation progress.

VOC concentration measurements also reveal subsurface migration of chemicals as pathways to indoor air vapor intrusion.

Soil gas is collected using sampling probes of various lengths to extract vapors at specific depths using evacuated canisters as a means to collect the sample without the need for sampling pumps. Contamination is pinpointed without using time consuming drilling operations, effectively determining the concentrations of contaminants with minimal disturbance to the surrounding environment. It is important to collect the vapour sample at controlled flow rates and with small sample volumes so that the sampling is not compromised by nearby points of contamination.