NSWC/WOL/TR 75-3 5 



1.2 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE 



One of the major effects of an underwater explosion on the 

 environment is the dispersion of the explosion products after the 

 detonation takes place. The ultimate disposition, of course, depends 

 on whether the product is gaseous or a solid, and whether it is 

 readily soluble in water or remains in a particulate form. Since 

 some of the explosion products (described in Section II) are toxic 

 and could produce adverse physiological effects to aquatic life and 

 wildlife, if present in sufficient concentration levels, field 

 surveys are needed to obtain adequate data on biological, chemical, 

 and physical water quality for the determination of the nature and 

 extent of these effects resulted from the underwater explosion tests. 



The purpose of this report is to formulate a chemical monitoring 

 program for underwater explosive testing, determine monitoring para- 

 meters, and provide information on the methodology involved. The 

 biological and physical monitoring programs will not be included in 

 this report. 



1.3 WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM 



Most of the work in water monitoring has been performed by wet 

 chemical analysis. However, in recent years, the combined needs for 

 rapid, frequent, and trace analysis demand increasing use of instru- 

 mental methods, preferably those which can be automated and are 

 continuous in operation. 



Instruments for water quality monitoring can be classified in 

 many ways. It is convenient to separate them as follows: continuous 

 samplers, semi-continuous samplers, and laboratory analyzers. 

 Continuous sampler instruments measure a constituent or physical 

 parameter on an uninterrupted basis; these instruments may be used 

 in the field or in the laboratory. Semicontinuous samplers measure 

 a pollutant on an interrupted or discrete sample basis; the analysis 

 is then performed on this sample. Semicontinuous sampling analyzers 

 are utilized in both field and laboratory application. Laboratory 

 analyzers ordinarily operate in the laboratory owing to the con- 

 straints of operation intervention, operational environment, and 

 fragility or high-maintenance requirements. 



Despite the large advances in instrument automation, the 

 majority of water monitoring information is still obtained with 

 manually operated laboratory analyzers. Manual operation implies 

 human involvement to progress from one step in the analysis to another, 



