Water Monitoring

Supporting Documents & Field Studies

What is the C.L.A.M.?

The C.L.A.M. (Continuous Low-Level Aquatic Monitoring) is a state-of-the-art submersible extraction sampler, using EPA approved SPE (Solid Phase Extraction) media to sequester Pesticides, Herbicides, PAH’s, TPH, and other trace organics from water. The C.L.A.M. offers ultra-low detection from 100 liters with a single field extraction, and the shipping and laboratory elution of just one small disk.

Traditional sampling methods

Standard grab sampling only provides a few second snap shot in time, of a changing dynamic system. Automatic samplers are bulky, heavy, expensive, and only provide an intermittent sample. Passive samplers will provide a long term integrative partitioning event, but requires complicated mathematical modeling for any type of quantitative information, and is dependent on temperature, flow, and bio-fouling.

How the C.L.A.M. is different from traditional sampling methods
  • The C.L.A.M. uses low flow rate extraction sampling (5-75 ml/minute), where water is drawn continuously through the extraction media first.
  • The C.L.A.M. provides an extraction event of up to 36 hours long, allowing capture of trace pollutants from illicit and episodic events.
  • The C.L.A.M. actually extracts the water in-situ, with the same technology the labs use on the bench, providing a pre-extracted quantitative sampling event representing up to a hundred liters of water.
  • The small, dry extraction disk is the only item that needs to be sent to the laboratory for solvent elution and analysis. This saves the costs of extraction, expensive cooler shipments of sample bottles, and seven day holding time requirements.
  • The C.L.A.M. weighs just over one pound, including the four (4) AA batteries, and can easily be taken to remote areas and left unattended to sample for days or weeks at submerged depths up to 100 feet.
  • The C.L.A.M. is applicable for sampling of urban water systems, rivers, monitoring wells, drinking water systems, watersheds and lakes, agricultural runoff, storm water and marine environments.

We have simply taken the lab to the field and left the water behind!

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