Sampling of Liquid and Solid Wastes and Sampling of the Environment

Environmental protection agencies have been created in many countries around the world because, as an industrial society, we have failed to evolve and grow in harmony with the fragile heritage that was given to us: the environment in which we live and prosper. Cost effective management of this extremely complex environment requires an integrated effort from many competent people such as geologists, metallurgist, hydrologists, biologists, chemists, statisticians, lawyers, and so on. All these people have one thing in common: the decisions they make heavily depend on estimates made by proxy on samples supposedly representative of a selected fraction of the environment. Measuring the progression and the impacts of an environmental problem, and finding solutions, are goals that are successfully reached only if all sources of sampling errors are well understood. The study of the various forms of heterogeneity is essential to the environmentalist who wants to detect and understand random, non-random, and cyclic fluctuations affecting the behavior of a given pollutant. Yet, very little attention has been given to sampling errors. Only a good understanding of the heterogeneity carried by a potential pollutant in a given environment can lead to the development of an appropriate and effective sampling plan. To be cost effective, this sampling plan often consists of an iterative action. It should be clearly understood that it is entirely up to us to perform correct sampling. Correct sampling is often completely uncorrelated with sampling cost. Excuses to perform incorrect sampling cannot be justified by time and budget limitations. They are often justified by the desire to comply with standards implemented by committees who know very little about sampling. It is a fact, for environmental sampling, that the technology of correct samplers remains to be developed or at least improved. We hope that the contents of this chapter will be helpful to those who are in charge of developing sampling systems to be used in the environment and will bring forth progressive new ideas.