Guidance Document on the Sampling and Preparation of Contaminated Soil for Use in Biological Testing
This document provides information for contaminated land site assessors, risk assessors, site managers, and risk managers on the design and implementation of a standardized, best practices approach for sampling and preparing soil for single-species toxicity and microbial tests. The guidance is also applicable for multi-species microcosm tests. Detailed procedures on the sampling, handling, transport, storage, and preparation of contaminated and reference soil for use in biological testing and complements are provided, but these do not replace the guidance that already exists for the sampling, collection, handling, and preparation of soils for chemical analyses.
Site-specific biological testing is an important component of contaminated land assessments as the data from site-specific biological testing integrate the inherent toxicity of the contaminant(s) and their mixtures in the soil with the bioavailability of the contaminant(s) under the specific conditions found at the site. Numerous biological tests are recommended in this document for the assessment of the toxicity of contaminated land including those for plants, macroinvertebrates, mesofauna, microorganisms, and microbial-mediated processes. Guidance is provided for when it is appropriate to use these site-specific biological tests, ranging from the screening level stage to use in higher-tier risk assessments. Case studies describing how biological test data are used in contaminated land management are also provided.
General or universal procedures are outlined for the preparation of collecting soil samples and include: developing study objectives; identifying the study area; collecting background data; conducting site surveys, soil surveys and ecological land classifications; selecting sampling strategies and locations; determining the size and number of samples to collect; establishing proper quality assurance and quality control procedures; considering environment, health and safety; and, developing sampling plans. General or universal procedures are also provided for: selecting sampling devices; collecting soil samples by horizon or by depth; handling soil samples on-site; selecting sample containers; and, transporting samples. There are general or universal procedures for personnel receiving, preparing and storing soil samples for biological testing, and soil preparation procedures described include drying, wetting, sieving, grinding, homogenizing, reconstituting, and characterizing samples. Examples of sampling devices, containers, and paper forms are provided in appendices. Specific examples of how to select sampling strategies and calculate the number of samples to collect are also provided as case studies in an appendix.
Additional procedures and considerations are included that are specific to the nature of the soil contaminant(s), biological testing requirements, and study objectives. These include procedures for collecting, handling, and preparing soils contaminated with volatile or unstable contaminants and manipulating soil samples (e.g., washing soils, autoclaving soils, etc.). An additional section is dedicated to guidance for sampling, handling, transporting, storing, and preparing soil from Canada's largest ecozones, boreal forest, taiga and tundra, as well as organic and wetland soils, for which some of the universal collection, handling, transport, storage and preparation procedures require modification. A brief description of ecological land classification, soil classification, and descriptions of the most dominant Soil Orders in Canada are provided in appendices.
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Author: Environment Canada
Cat. No.: En49-7/1-53E-PDF
ISBN: 978-1-100-21360-6
Year: 2012
- Date Modified: