Significant Parameters for Assessing Soil Contaminant-Leaching to
Groundwater and Determining Soil Sample Size in Field Survey

Jeong, Seung-Woo; An, Youn-Joo

doi:2008.13.2.73

Environmental Engineering Research 2008;13(2): 73-78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4491/eer.2008.13.2.073

Significant Parameters for Assessing Soil Contaminant-Leaching to Groundwater and Determining Soil Sample Size in Field Survey

Seung-Woo Jeong¹^†, and Youn-Joo An²

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Kunsan National University, Kunsan, 573-701, Korea
²Department of Environmental Science, Konkuk University, Seoul, 147-701, Korea

Corresponding Author: Seung-Woo Jeong ,Tel: +82-63-469-4767, Fax: +82-63-469-4964, Email: swjeong@kunsan.ac.kr

Received: November 6, 2007; Accepted: March 8, 2008.

ABSTRACT

For a given soil-contaminated site, a level of soil contamination is characterized and decisions on risk may be made from the risk assessment. The study evaluated critical design factors for the determination of sample size in the sampling design plan and the assessment of soil contaminant- leaching to groundwater. Two variables, the minimum relative detectable difference (T) and coefficient of variation (CV) were evaluated for the sample size determination. The minimum number of samples can be appropriately determined by CV under a T value greater than or equal to 0.2. Soil-contaminant leaching to groundwater was evaluated by using the Soil Screening Level equation of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Risk Based Screening Level equation of American Society for Testing and Materials, with the same input parameters. The groundwater concentrations estimated from soil contaminant concentrations were significantly affected by the Darcy velocity of groundwater and the organic content of soil.