1.1 The scope and purpose of this guidance is to present a variety of statistical approaches for assessment, compliance and corrective action environmental monitoring programs. Although the methods provided here are appropriate and often optimal for many environmental monitoring problems, they do not preclude use of other statistical approaches that may be equally or even more useful for certain site-specific applications.

1.2 In the following sections, the details of select statistical procedures used in assessment and corrective action programs for environmental monitoring (soil, groundwater, air, surface water, and waste streams) are presented.

1.3 The statistical methodology described in the following sections should be used as guidance. Other methods may also be appropriate based on site-specific conditions or for monitoring situations or media that are not presented in this document.

1.4 This practice offers an organized collection of information or a series of options and does not recommend a specific course of action. This document cannot replace education, experience and professional judgements. Not all aspects of this practice may be applicable in all circumstances. This ASTM standard is not intended to represent or replace the standard of care by which the adequacy of a given professional service must be judged without consideration of a project's many unique aspects. The word Standard in the title of this document only means that the document has been approved through the ASTM consensus process.

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory requirements prior to use.