General information about sampling locations.

The Location Definition Information (LDI) file is the foundation for all subsequent environmental data submitted to ERPIMS and ties together all hydrogeological and chemical data.  A location is a uniquely defined geographical point where some environmental sample or measurement was taken for inclusion into ERPIMS.  Incomplete location definition information will limit the usefulness of the data in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).  Therefore, essentially all LDI data attributes are required for newly established locations.

The Location Identification (LOCID) for a given location must be consistent throughout a submission and between submissions.  The submittal of LDI information is mandatory.   If a location has not been previously entered into ERPIMS, and it was not provided when submitting a current LDI file, the location's technical information cannot be accepted due to referential integrity constraints.  Often times, contractors are required to sample locations that were previously established, but do not exist in ERPIMS.   In such cases, they should contact ERPIMS Data Support to arrange the capture of the historical location information, rather than exclude it from the data submittal.

As stated above, a location represents a unique point in a two dimensional space.  There can be only one sampling location with a given coordinate pair.  Distinction of samples collected at different depths or contained in different matrices are reflected in the Samples table and must not be treated as if collected from different LOCIDs.  If a location type is converted, say from a bore hole to a monitoring well, contact ERPIMS Data Support to coordinate the update of the appropriate information through the ERPToolsX application.

A list of all current locations and their associated reference information is automatically downloaded into each ERPToolsX project, when it is created.  The application checks the ERPIMS database every three days afterward for changes to the reference data, and automatically downloads them if differences are found.  If contractors note differences between known Site-Location conditions and the ERPIMS reference data, they should update the AFCEC supplied data and submit the changes as soon as possible.  All submitted changes should be documentable.  Submitted changes will generally be available to all ERPToolsX users within a couple of days, and serve to increase the accuracy and detail of the AFCEC reference data set.

Whenever a new well or bore hole location is submitted, lithology (LTD) data should be submitted also.  Well locations SHALL be accompanied by all applicable site (SLX), well completion (WCI) and well interval data (WINT).  When normal environmental samples are taken from monitoring wells, group 2 GWD and group 3 field tests (EMI) data must be provided.  Exclusion of required data elements, without justification in the PROJSAMP table, will result in the data submission being considered incomplete.