Standard Practice for Sampling Soils and Contaminated Media with Hand-Operated Bucket Augers

Importancia y uso:

5.1 Bucket augers (Fig. 1) are relatively inexpensive, readily available, available in different types depending on the media to be sampled, and most can be easily operated by one person. They collect a reasonably cylindrical but disturbed sample of surface or subsurface soil or waste. They are generally not suited for sampling gravelly or coarser soil and are unsuitable for sampling rock. There are other designs of hand augers, such as the Edelman auger, used to retrieve difficult materials such as waste, sands, peat, and mud.

FIG. 1 Bucket Auger

5.2 Bucket augers are commonly used equipment because they are inexpensive to operate, especially compared to powered equipment (that is, direct push and drill rigs). When evaluated against screw augers (Guide D4700), bucket augers generally collect larger samples with less chance of mixing with soil from shallow depths because the sample is retained within the auger bucket. Bucket augers are commonly used to depths of 3 m but have been used to much greater depths depending upon the soil or waste characteristics. In general, bucket augers can maintain open holes in unsaturated soils and saturated clay soils below the water table. Saturated sands will cave below the water table and perched zones and cohesionless dry sands may also cave. The sampling depth is limited by the force required to rotate the auger and the depth at which the bore hole collapses (unless bore casings or liners are used).

5.3 Bucket augers may not be suitable for the collection of samples for determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) because the sample is disturbed and exposed to atmosphere during the collection process, which may lead to losses resulting in a chemically unrepresentative sample.

5.4 If VOC analysis is required, the bucket auger is used to reach the desired sample depth, a planer auger can be used to clean the base of the hole, and a hammered drive tube sampler (Fig. 2) can be used at the bottom of the hole. Drive tube samplers can be sealed and capped. Consult Guide D4547 on practices for immediate subsampling of soil cores for VOCs. Drive tubes that are not full and contain disturbed material and are exposed to air may not provide accurate VOC data. For the best results, the core sample can be extruded from the tube and immediately subsampled.

FIG. 2 Soil Core Sampler System

Subcomité:

D34.01.03

Referida por:

D6286_D6286M-20, D6232-21, D8438_D8438M-23

Volúmen:

11.04

Número ICS:

13.080.05 (Examination of soil in general)

Palabras clave:

auger; barrel auger; bucket auger; environmental; sampling; sampling equipment; soil; soil sampling; waste; waste management;