Groundwater supports many communities and industries and provides water for environmental assets around Australia, including rivers, springs, wetlands and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs). Groundwater, accounts for over 30% of Australia’s total water consumption (NWC 2008) with uses including drinking, irrigation, stock supply and bottling. The demand for groundwater is steadily growing, as Australia’s industrial and agricultural development increases. Knowledge of aquifers and fundamental groundwater processes are important for managing the quantity, quality and sustainability of this resource.
Monitoring groundwater by analysing its chemical constituents is integral to understanding groundwater systems and aids effective management. Sampling and analysing groundwater on a regular basis provides a useful tool to understand and monitor changes to groundwater systems. Depending on the purpose of monitoring, a comprehensive, fit-for-purpose, suite of parameters should be collected and tested. Groundwater sampling requires specialised methods and approaches to acquire samples for analysis that represent the in-situ groundwater hydrogeochemical and hydrogeological conditions.
Multiple government agencies have produced guidelines to address specific groundwater issues, including: groundwater sampling (Jiwan & Gates, 1992; Rayment & Poplawski, 1992; Hill, 2007; EPA Victoria, 2022; ANSTO; and NMI); groundwater quality sampling in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDBC 1997); groundwater monitoring for community groups (Waterwatch 2005); and sampling for contaminated sites (AWRC, 1991). Groundwater sampling and analysis is a tool that can be used for multiple geoscientific purposes, including: groundwater resource assessment; management and monitoring; carbon capture and storage; mineral exploration; geothermal energy; and energy and resource industries. This document provides a comprehensive guide, applicable to a range of geoscientific disciplines, that draws together information on drilling methods, bore construction, sampling equipment and sampling methods for groundwater analysis. This guide contains standard groundwater sampling protocols, also known as standard operating procedures (SOPs), commonly used by Geoscience Australia (GA) over the last decade. These protocols aim to provide consistency for the acquisition of accurate, repeatable and comparable groundwater datasets and provides confidence in their analysis and interpretation.
