The other day I was out walking with the dog and passed a new construction site where they are building a new shopping center. I noticed they were putting something in the ground and the person I was walking with informed me that they were using what looked to be soil gas probes. Since I had never heard of them, I inquired as to what it may mean. I actually started talking at first about how cool I think it is that they would be probing for natural gas sources before they build, but they informed me that it wasn’t exactly what they were doing, instead it was more likely testing for toxic gases in the area or maybe to see if there were any toxic oils or gases in the soil from gas leaks or any kind of other toxic spill.
Since it was something new to me, I paused and observed them for a little while, but couldn’t really see what they were doing. Since it was so close to the ground, I couldn’t really see anything, so I didn’t ‘learn’ much in terms of observation. I did find it interesting though that these things occur and apparently more often than I would have even guessed.
My next question is what do they do when they find something with the probes? That’s a question that I don’t have the answer to yet, but one thing is for certain, I do intend to find out. After all, to know me is to know that I am always curious about things happening around me and wanting to learn something new. Even though this may be something that I never encounter again, having the knowledge and little understanding will satisfy my curiosity and who knows, maybe one day it’s knowledge that I’ll be able to use for something else. One never really knows.