The Mechancial Bladder Pump developed by Geoprobe® Systems is an easy-to-use device for sampling from monitoring wells and small diameter groundwater samplers.

Collect representative samples for VOCs and other environmental analytes using the MB470 Mechanical Bladder Pump without expensive and cumbersome accessories. It’s simple to use! It saves money! And you can sample through direct push installed wells, groundwater samplers, or conventional 2-inch monitoring wells ... at half the cost! The MBP allows you to collect high-quality, low-turbidity samples without generators, compressors, or pneumatic controllers. It doesn’t get much better than this!

The Model MB470 Mechanical Bladder Pump is not pneumatically operated so no heavy and expensive accessories are required. This significantly reduces your initial purchase cost, mobilization cost, maintenance cost, and level of effort for use in the field.

EPA ETV Program Tests MBP
The mechanical bladder pump was recently tested via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program to determine if the MBP provides representative samples for field parameters and selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Those findings, which were released this fall by Eric Koglin and Wayne Einfeld with the ETV Program, are reviewed in a separate story.

MBP: Low-Flow Sampling at Half the Cost
All mechanical movement is contained inside the pump body so that agitation of water in the well and formation does not occur. This provides turbidity levels as well as DO and ORP (dissolved oxygen and oxidation-reduction potential) results that are comparable to pneumatic bladder pump results. For tests conducted at the U.S Geological Survey 100-foot tall standpipe facility at the Stennis Space Center, the ETV Verification Statement indicates that “no statistically significant difference was observed between the mechanical bladder pump and the reference samples.” VOCs included in the ETV testing were MTBE, benzene, TCE, and chloroform, among others.

The MBP is a simple device that uses mechanical compression and expansion of a corrugated Teflon® bladder to pump water from a well for low-flow sampling. A set of concentric tubes threads into the upper end of the pump and extends to the surface. The outer tube is held fixed in position, and the inner tube is oscillated gently up and down to expand and compress the corrugated bladder. Flow rates from less than 100 mL/min to over 1000 mL/min can be obtained with a hand-operated Mechanical Actuator (MB6000). These small pumps are ideal for low-flow sampling in direct push installed wells, groundwater samplers, and conventional 2-inch monitoring wells. The simple design of the MBP makes disassembly in the field for decontamination and bladder replacement simple and quick (less than 5 minutes).

There’s a new SOP available for the Mechanical Bladder Pump (MK3013), and it’s free. For a copy of the SOP or for any other information, request it here or contact Geoprobe® Systems at 1-800-436-7762.

This article was featured in the Fall 2003 edition of the Probing Times. Request the printed edition of this publication with our online Literature Request Form.