Large concentrations of the metal soil pollutants, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, have been detected in and around Palmerton, Pennsylvania. Before a cleanup of the area can be undertaken, it will be necessary to map the spatial distribution of the concentrations of the pollutants over the area. Then boundaries can be determined for the regions that are above and below action levels. The estimation of the spatial distributions of the metal concentrations, with a prespecified level of precision, requires a definitive soil-sampling survey. The intensity of sampling (i.e., distance between sample points) needed to attain the prespecified level of precision will depend on the nonsampling error variance and the spatial structure of the concentration measurements. To determine the nonsampling error variance and the spatial structure, a preliminary soil-sampling study is required. This paper discusses the planning of such a preliminary study.