ABSTRACT
The porous suction cup sampler (PSCS) has proved to be a very useful tool for the monitoring and study of vadose zone water quality. The soil water PSCS was first used as a monitoring and research device for studies in agriculture. Since that time, they have been used for a wide variety of environmental monitoring purposes, from landfills to mine sites to hazardous waste facilities. They are capable of sampling soil moisture or ground water from remote areas that are not accessible by conventional water well installations. The most common installations are usually simple and cost-effective, and in many cases can be completed without the use of heavy drilling equipment. Perhaps most important, a PSCS properly placed and installed can detect contamination in the vadose zone within several days or weeks of a leak, whereas a conventional monitoring well may take months or years to detect a leak of the same magnitude after it has entered the ground-water regime.
