Measuring Energetic Contaminant Deposition Rates on Snow

Energetic residues from military live-fire training will accumulate on ranges and lead to the contamination of soil and water. Characterizing surface soils for energetic contamination has been conducted extensively in the past. However, deriving mass deposition rates on soils for specific munition-related activities, necessary for determining the cumulative impact of these activities and developing range sustainability models, has been problematic. Factors include determining the energetic residues deposition area, discriminating current deposition from previous activities, separating the residues from the collection matrix, and processing the samples. To circumvent these problems, methods were developed for sampling energetic residues on clean snow surfaces. At firing points, a clean snow surface allows the collection of propellant residues from a known quantity and type of munition. Explosives residues from projectile detonations can be sampled from clean snow- and ice-covered surfaces in active impact areas. Sampling protocols have been optimized and quality assurance procedures have been developed during years of research on munition residues deposition rates. These methods are currently being used in the US, Canada, and Norway for both energetics and metal contaminants with other applications under consideration. This paper describes the current sampling protocol for clean snow surfaces and presents examples of its application.