Monitoring Well

Use at Camp Edwards
Monitoring wells are used in our investigations to determine the extent of contamination in groundwater.

Description of the Technology
During our investigations, sampling and analysis of groundwater must be completed to confirm the presence or absence of suspected contaminants. This is achieved through the installation of monitoring wells.

Monitoring wells are different in nature from other wells. Monitoring wells are non-pumping wells used to collect water samples below the ground surface. The groundwater samples collected from these wells provide necessary information, such as compound identification and the levels of contamination. If groundwater samples from the monitoring well show no detections, or extremely low levels of detection, the monitoring well will mark the edge of the groundwater contamination. If a detection is found in the groundwater sample, then another location for a well will be determined to define the extent of contamination.