ABSTRACT
Drilling techniques have been modified to account for possible contaminated ground. However, drilling techniques generally produce considerable disturbance to the materials surrounding the drill hole, which can have a significant effect on subsequent sample quality. With increasing application of data quality management, drilling and sampling techniques are becoming less acceptable. Also, drilling and sampling methods produce cuttings of the material removed from the drill hole. If these cuttings are contaminated they may require special handling and disposal methods. In many states of the USA there are regulations that require all drill cuttings removed from geo-environmental site investigations to be disposed of or stored in an acceptable manner. This can increase the cost of a day of drilling by as much as US$1,000. Hence, there have been clear incentives to develop techniques that do not produce cuttings from the subsurface.
