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One row of the national soil archive at the KSSL.

National Soil Archive

On day one of testing, more than 2,000 samples were transferred over eight hours, far exceeding anyone’s expectations.

The Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory (KSSL) national soil archive gets an upgrade!

The national soil archive of the KSSL comprises over 400,000 samples representing over 80 years of natural resource inventory. The samples represent the land uses, management practices and states of soil development at time of collection. In the archive are ~100,000 samples regulated by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and/or the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) due to the potential presence of biological organisms that APHIS/NDA aims to restrict. Examples are fire ants, certain nematodes, and parasitic plants. Also, the KSSL has an extensive international soil collection from more than 70 countries, and such samples are, by definition, regulated by APHIS.

Carboard (old) vs. polypropylene (new) containers.
Carboard (old) vs. polypropylene (new) containers.

The soil archive is currently housed in the basement of the Denney Federal Building in Lincoln, NE but will soon be moved to the second floor of the new KSSL facility under construction nearby in Lincoln. Because of this increased exposure to potential extreme weather in Lincoln (e.g. tornados), APHIS required upgrading the primary containments of regulated soils from cardboard to polymer. 

KSSL employees transferring regulated samples to new containers.
KSSL employees transferring regulated samples to new containers.

A KSSL team developed, tested, and implemented an efficient assembly line approach for conducting sample transfers to minimize the burden on any one individual, and to the extent possible, making the overall task a social and engaging operation for better morale. On day one of testing, more than 2,000 samples were transferred over eight hours, far exceeding anyone’s expectations. This success energized the team to train others to carry out an ongoing transfer operation that now involves most KSSL personnel. 

Morning, afternoon, and weekend shifts were used to spread the workload more evenly. Database specialists identified samples needing transfer, generate new container labels, and track progress. As the old cardboard containers are regulated from contact with regulated soil, pallets of regulated waste are being generated for eventual treatment and disposal by a local treatment facility.

Multiple pallets of regulated waste generated during the KSSL sample transfer operation.
Multiple pallets of regulated waste generated during the KSSL sample transfer operation.

As part of quality control, every sample box was pulled from the shelf to ensure that all regulated soil samples were documented in LIMS and that no samples were incorrectly marked as regulated; this has improved accounting.  

On July 28, KSSL finished transferring “post-LIMS” samples, which are samples submitted to KSSL after the inception of the current KSSL Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), or samples received since 2002. This represents about 60,000 regulated samples!  

What’s next is the transfer of “pre-LIMS,” or pre-2002 samples, or about 40,000 more regulated samples. This may be a more slow-going, painstaking process compared with the “post-LIMS” samples due to an older database requiring more cross-checks against APHIS regulations that have evolved with time. The plan is to complete all regulated transfers well ahead of the upcoming move to the new KSSL facility.