Characterizing Soil Contamination at Sites with Multiple Undocumented Spills: Draft Final Report

Remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater requires accurate characterization of contaminant occurrence. In facilities that have been contaminated through multiple, discrete spills of unknown timing and quantity, the problems of characterization can be very difficult. Using a large data set of pesticide contamination in soil samples at two agrichemical facilities, we have explored the distribution of contamination, and have evaluated several methods for designing sampling strategies and evaluating sample results.