Do not touch the open bottle. Keep bottles clean to prevent contamination
Do not allow bottle lids to touch ground. Keep lids clean to prevent contamination.
Do not sample in stagnant area with little flow. Do not stir up bottom sediments or allow foreign materials to enter the sample bottle. (Do be careful to grab a clean sample in cases where stormwater runoff is shallow.) If the runoff is so shallow that ist is not possible to sample without the sample being contaminated in the process, them find an alternative way to sample.
Do not allow water to overfill the bottle, particularly not for sample bottles with preservative. Oil and grease samples should be collected from water falling into the bottle when possible, or otherwise in a single swoop.
Do attach a bottle to a pole for sampling in manholes or when a hand sample would be in stagnant water. A boathook is used in this example and the bottle is attached to it with filament strapping tape.
If the water is too shallow to sample with the bottle upright on the pole, try taping it on sideways, but tilted up sightly.
Do collect samples without overfilling the bottles.
