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ADVISORY-ACTIVE SOIL GAS INVESTIGATIONS 4.0 SOIL GAS SAMPLE COLLECTION 4.1 EQUILIBRATION TIME Subsurface conditions are disturbed during drilling and probe placement. To allow for the subsurface to equilibrate back to representative conditions, the following equilibration times are recommended before proceeding with soil gas sampling: 1) For soil gas wells installed with the direct push method, do not conduct the purge volume test, leak test and soil gas sampling for at least two hours following vapor probe installation; 2) For soil gas wells installed with hollow stem or hand auger drilling methods, do not conduct the purge volume test, leak test and soil gas sampling for at least 48 hours after soil gas probe installation; 3) For soil gas wells installed with a combination of hand auger drilling or hollow stem auger and direct push methods, do not conduct the purge volume test, leak test and soil gas sampling for at least two hours following vapor probe installation provided that at least five feet of the borehole was drilled by direct push technology. The five feet of direct push borehole should be drilled after the completion of hand augering or hollow stem augering. The well screen should be located below this five-foot interval. If the well screen is located above the five-foot interval, do not conduct the purge volume test, leak test and soil gas sampling for at least 48 hours after soil gas probe installation; and 4) For soil gas wells installed with the rotosonic or air rotary method, do not conduct the purge volume test, leak test, and soil gas sampling until it can be empirically demonstrated that the subsurface equilibrium time is sufficient to collect representative samples. Due to site-specific conditions, the re- establishment of equilibrium could vary from a few days to a few weeks. Note: The best option to verify that equilibrium has re-established is to collect time- series data. Soil gas samples, along with oxygen and carbon dioxide measurements, should be collected shortly after installation, and then at a frequency that will demonstrate the time needed to attain representative samples. A field instrument may be used to analyze the soil gas samples to evaluate representativeness. Assuming similar lithology, one monitoring point could serve as a surrogate for all others when installing multiple sampling probes. For differing Iithologies, see Additional Purge Volume Tests section below. Soil gas well installation method and equilibration time should be recorded in the field log book or field form. 4.2 SOIL GAS ASSEMBLY TESTS Complete shut-in, leak, and purge volume tests before collecting soil gas samples after the soil gas well has equilibrated. April 2012 16