The GORE-SORBER® Screening Survey is the most accurate, comprehensive soil gas sampling technology available today for environmental investigations. By using this survey to characterize an area of environmental concern, the traditional role of exploratory sampling shifts to confirmation sampling. The GORE-SORBER Survey delineates the extent of the subsurface contamination, yields compound specific results, and illustrates the relative magnitude of contamination across the site (i.e., source areas, contaminant plume geometry, "hot spots," and non-impacted areas). We provide survey design, the soil gas collectors, analysis, final reporting with contour mapping, and post-survey support. The GORE-SORBER Screening Survey has been used successfully on more than 1,500 projects since 1992. Hundreds of thousands of investigative dollars have been saved by applying this site characterization technology initially, and using the results to design further sampling and remedial actions.

The GORE-SORBER® Module is a unique passive soil gas sampler that combines a protective waterproof, vapor permeable chemically-inert membrane housing engineered sorbents, into an easy to install and retrieve collector. The membrane protects the sorbents from contacting liquid water and soil, while allowing unimpeded vapor passage to the sorbent. The module can be installed to recommended sampling depths of three feet below the ground surface without casing the hole. The waterproof membrane allows for installation below the water table or in tidally-influenced areas without compromising the integrity of the sorbent. The passive approach to soil gas sampling allows for the detection of VOC, SVOC, and PAH compounds with increased sensitivity and contaminant detection even in low permeability soils, soils that are saturated, and where contaminant concentrations are low. After a ten to fourteen day exposure period, the modules are analyzed at Gore’s laboratory, using thermal desportion, gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), following a modified EPA method 8260/8270. This approach yields sensitive, compound-specific results for positive identification of target compounds. Each module contains duplicate samples for QA measures.

An exciting new application of the GORE-SORBER module consists of water quality monitoring. For this application, the modules are placed directly in groundwater in the screened interval of monitoring wells for an exposure period of 48 hours. Following module exposure, the analytical results are combined with actual groundwater concentration data. Once a data baseline is established, trends in water quality can be reviewed by sampling with the module alone saving considerable amounts of sampling dollars. Case studies are currently being completed. A US EPA ETV report documenting our successful application of this technology to monitor groundwater quality is scheduled for publication.