Case Study: Low Flow Groundwater Sampling

Remediation Sites in Central California's Mojave Desert

One of the largest environmental and infrastructure consulting companies in the world has been using the QNOPY Platform for managing groundwater sampling activities at high-profile remediation sites in California’s Mojave Desert. The monitoring program is complex, and the number of wells sampled in any given quarter exceeds 1,000. However, using the QNOPY Platform, the consultant has collected and recorded data for over 10 thousand samples over the last three years. Furthermore, they have achieved a 30% reduction in costs as well as better quality data with zero re-work and no data lost.

A groundwater sampling site in central California
A groundwater sampling site in central California from one of QNOPY's Groundwater Sampling case studies
A groundwater sampling site in central California

Challenges

  • Complex sampling plans because of regulatory requirements
  • Mislabeled well IDs, resulting in sampling the wrong wells
  • Duplicate sampling due to regular technician turnover
  • Difficulties planning the sampling events and assigning samplers
  • Need for manual QA of the daily sampling work
  • Constant pressure to reduce costs and add efficiencies
  • Overlapping sampling programs with different analysis requirements

    • QNOPY's Groundwater Sampling Solution

    For this purpose, QNOPY customized the groundwater sampling forms to include all the unique requirements. Furthermore, QNOPY set up the projects in the system, added all the wells to the database (including construction details, such as depth to bottom, diameter, and the screen intervals), and uploaded the geographic locations of the wells.

    QNOPY customized the groundwater sampling forms with all the unique requirements
    QNOPY customized the groundwater sampling forms with all the unique requirements
    All relevant information was loaded onto the QNOPY Platform
    All relevant information was loaded onto the QNOPY Platform

    Highlights

  • QNOPY provided cellular tablets as well as the software subscription
  • The QNOPY Mobile App works offline, thus allowing technicians to record data with no internet connection and upload later
  • Each technician has a unique login and can see all the wells and their completion status
  • QNOPY displays wells on a map, making them easier to find in open spaces
  • Automatically attach photos as well as the well integrity checklist to the well and to the form
  • The App automatically populates the well diameter and the total well depth, so the technicians can confirm they are at the correct well
  • Export all collected data as EDDs for importing into the client’s internal database
  • The App shows the last two readings for quick reference
  • Each parameter has a valid range, based on the historic data or hard limits
  • Pre-load parameter stabilization criteria, allowing the QNOPY App to calculate the difference between sets and indicate stabilization status
  • Pre-load a sampling plan for each well in the Mobile App
  • Technicians see the types and number of sample containers or bottles to fill
  • The project manager has access to the data as it is recorded in the field via QNOPY’s Web Portal
  • The PM can easily edit the field logs, add/remove wells, as well as export the well logs in PDF, Word, or Excel formats
  • View trends in data in time series plots

    • Results

    30% overall cost reduction

    10,000 samples collected and recorded

    No typos in the well IDs

    Zero data loss

    A geotag and timestamp for every data point

    No tablets damaged or lost

    Zero duplication of work

    Significantly reduced data clean-up time

    Photos for every well box

    Learn more about QNOPY's Groundwater Monitoring solution