THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATIC SOIL SAMPLER

A recently introduced EC Directive requires that soils receiving sewage sludge should be sampled to a greater depth (250 mm) than previously. The Water Research Centre foresaw the difficulties that could arise for responsible Authorities if they were to cope with the extra workload and maintain the quality of sampling, and therefore it funded the development of an automatic sampler. This report traces the development of the sampler which was mounted on an all-terrain vehicle, and illustrates its suitability for the task by reporting one year's operating experiences. Work rates have been up to eight times those with hand sampling. A production machine from the first batch is also described.