title: Groundwater Sampling and Analysis, A Field Guide, Version 2
Creators: name: L., Wallace
name: B., Sundaram
name: L., Wallace
name: P., de Caritat
name: A., Feitz
name: T., Ransley
Publisher: name: Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: EFTF – Exploring for the Future
subject: National Groundwater Systems
subject: groundwater
subject: Exploring for the Future (EFTF)
subject: sampling
subject: Groundwater hydrology
subject: Published_External

description: Groundwater resources support many communities and industries and provides water for environmental assets around Australia including rivers, springs, wetlands and groundwater dependant ecosystems (GDEs). Aquifers are the source of groundwater, accounting for over 30% of Australia’s total water consumption (NWC 2008) including drinking, irrigation, stock supply and bottling. The demand for groundwater is steadily growing, as Australia’s industrial and agricultural development increases. Understanding aquifers and the fundamental groundwater processes are important for managing the quantity and quality of this resource. Monitoring groundwater, including analysing its chemical constituents, is integral to understanding groundwater systems and effective management. Sampling and analysis should be carried out on a regular basis, particularly where groundwater is being extracted and, depending on the purpose of monitoring, a comprehensive, fit for purpose, suite of parameters should be collected and tested.Groundwater sampling requires specialised methods and approaches to acquire representative samples for appropriate analysis. While surface water quality sampling procedures are well developed and documented, groundwater sampling requirements are different and have received less attention in the past. The objective of groundwater sampling is to obtain a sample representative of the <em>in situ</em> hydrogeochemical and hydrogeological conditions.Multiple government agencies have published or produced guidelines to address specific groundwater issues, including: groundwater sampling (Jiwan &amp; Gates, 1992; Rayment &amp; Poplawski, 1992; Hill, 2007; EPA Victoria, 2022; ANSTO; and NMI ); groundwater quality sampling in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDBC 1997); groundwater monitoring for community groups (Waterwatch 2005); and sampling for contaminated sites (AWRC, 1991). Groundwater sampling and analysis is a tool that can be used for multiple geoscientific purposes including: groundwater resource assessment, management and monitoring; carbon capture and storage; mineral exploration; geothermal energy; and energy and resource industries. The current document provides a comprehensive guide, applicable to a range of geoscientific disciplines, that draws together information on drilling methods, bore construction, sampling equipment and the sampling of groundwater for analysis. This guide presents an updated set of standard groundwater sampling protocols, or standard operating procedures (SOPs), commonly used by Geoscience Australia (GA) over the last decade. These protocols aim to provide consistency across studies for acquisition of accurate, repeatable and comparable groundwater datasets and provide confidence in their interpretation.