National Water Quality Instrumentation Service. At the outset, portable monitoring devices were deployed to monitor water courses across the Heathrow estate. These have now been made permanent installations, with BAA able to monitor for any problems in pre-treatment discharges that are destined for local rivers.
The NLS has also supported a National Health Service hospital, deploying a ‘suitcase’ based monitoring system to help tackle a long standing water quality issue with a pond located on the hospital site. This customer wanted to ensure that controls to maintain water quality in the pond were working.
So called ‘suitcase systems’ are very quick to deploy, with all of the monitoring instrumentation literally housed in a hard backed suitcase that can be solar or mains powered. ‘Suitcase’ systems are especially useful in situations where short-term monitoring is required, either in support of pollution events or to monitor the impact of planned maintenance, and for any investigations for which an immediate response is required.
NLS real time monitoring solutions, operated on behalf of the Olympic Development Authority in the Lower Lea Valley, are currently monitoring the impact on local river water quality that may result from the site development in readiness for 2012. This approach to monitoring water quality helps to save on the costs associated with traditional ‘spot’ sampling and the subsequent delay involved with establishing laboratory-based results.
The beginning of the end for the environmental testing laboratory? The case for lab-based testing is still supported as the results generated can be defensible and repeatable, and are derived from a controlled environment. More often than not, the laboratory can deliver a wider range of substance detection at lower levels. However, field- based monitoring can offer representative results and can be linked to a real time communications capability to support more immediate decision-making.
There is perhaps one technique that can satisfy both testing for a broad range of compounds and deliver results that provide an accurate representation of what is actually going on in a water course over time. Passive sampling is a way of testing water for pollutants by leaving an absorbent medium in place for several weeks at a time to accumulate contaminants. As this method provides a site test which collects an average pollutant concentration over an extended period without repeat visits, this approach is much more cost effective, particularly with the higher monitoring demands under the WFD. It is estimated that passive sampling can cut the cost of routine water sampling by up to 30%. It also minimises the chance that you will miss a particular pollutant because you sampled at the wrong time.
To predict even the beginning of the end for laboratory- ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |117|
based testing would be folly. Both approaches are able to exist side by side, and often as complementary techniques. The further adoption of real time, in-situ monitoring is set to increase, with the miniaturisation of a range of sensing technologies that will present its users a wealth of data in real time.
Graham Miller, global business manager for Agilent mobile Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), agrees: “At Agilent we see mobile testing as being a tool in the toolbox, offering quick turnaround and timelier decision- making without compromising analytical performance. The laboratory has an essential role to play, not only in implementation and validation of new mobile techniques, but in monitoring outcomes as well.”
Images 1: DTC Mini Kiosk Autosmapler Image 2: Instrumentation - NLS solar powered monitoring station. Image 3: DTC Mini Kiosk Eden Image 4: Stinton Hall Exterior Image 5: Newton Rigg Exterior
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