WWEM AND AQE REFLECT GROWING IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING


There was an extra buzz at this year’s WWEM and AQE events; not just because the speakers, exhibitors and visitors were excited to fi nally meet each other face-to-face again, but also because of numerous exciting developments in the environmental monitoring sector. For example, the Environment Act 2021 states that a sewerage undertaker must monitor upstream and downstream of an asset where water quality is potentially affected by discharges from storm overfl ows. There are thousands of these in the UK.


Similar large-scale projects exist in the air quality sector. For example, AQE speakers from Vodafone described a preliminary study on the suitability of their base station masts to host air quality sensors for outdoor pollution monitoring. Vodafone has thousands of these masts in the UK.


In combination, WWEM (Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring) and AQE (Air Quality & Emissions) offer everyone involved with environmental protection an opportunity to learn about the latest regulations, standards, methods, processes and technologies. With up to ten different presentations running simultaneously across the two events, visitors were provided with a wide variety of technical and application-specifi c content to choose from.


intended to set a clear, long-term plan for nature’s recovery. In a post- EU era, we now have the freedom to move towards a system that focuses on nature’s recovery as well as its preservation, and which places more emphasis on science and less emphasis on legal process. This change in approach will help us in the pursuit of the targets we are setting under the Environment Act.”


The Environment Act’s focus on targets is good news for everyone involved with WWEM and AQE, because environmental initiatives need to be underpinned by data, and regulated processes need to know the limits that apply to them, so that they can check compliance and plan any necessary investments to ensure ongoing compliance.


Under the new Act, targets on water quality will tackle the most signifi cant pressures on the water environment and help unlock the most serious challenges to clean up England’s rivers, as well as support wider ambitions in the 25 Year Environment Plan for clean and plentiful water. For air quality, the Act will create at least two new legally binding targets for one of the most harmful pollutants, fi ne particulate matter (PM2.5


), for which the


government proposed a new legally binding target to reduce levels of PM2.5


to 10 µg/m3 by 2040.


Monitoring for the Environment Act of 2021


Many of the presentations across both AQE and WWEM addressed the implications of the Environment Act 2021, which was established, post-Brexit, to create new rules on nature protection, water quality, clean air and other environmental issues that were previously addressed by EU directives.


The Environment Act provides the UK Government with powers to set new binding targets, including for air quality, water, biodiversity, and waste reduction. It also establishes a new environmental watchdog, the Offi ce for Environmental Protection (OEP), which will hold the Government and other public bodies to account, and ensure compliance with environmental laws.


When the Environment Act became law, the (then) Environment Secretary, George Eustice said: “These proposed targets are


IET NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2022


The proposed targets were subject to an eight-week consultation period in which the government sought the views of environment groups, local authorities and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, this consultation expired on 31st October 2022, and the government webpage now says: “We received over 180,000 responses to the consultation, which all needed to be analysed and carefully considered. Due to the volume of material and the signifi cant public response, we have not been able to publish targets by 31 October 2022, as required by the Act. We continue to work at pace to lay draft statutory instruments as soon as practicable. We expect to publish the summary of responses and government response when we fi nalise the suite of Environment Act 2021 targets.”


Such a failure, at the fi rst hurdle, to meet the requirements of the Act has inspired widespread frustration, with a major alliance of green groups submitting a letter of complaint to Defra.


New Infrastructure, Indoor Air and Amines-Based Capture: AQE 2022


The programme for AQE was drawn-up by Jim Mills, an independent consultant with Scotswolds Ltd. Speakers addressed current air quality issues from a number of different perspectives, including regulation, research, philanthropy, and measurement technology. Fine particulates featured in almost


all presentations, but there were also common themes such as the impacts of electric vehicles, non-exhaust emissions, wood burners and the combustion products of alternative fuels.


A potentially enormous project was described in which work is being undertaken to investigate the suitability of telecommunications infrastructure to host air quality monitors. Jim Mills has been advising Vodafone on its investigations and has helped to establish an evaluation of existing air quality monitoring technologies (11 monitors from 6 manufacturers), with the potential to install them at up to 14,500 locations in the UK, although Vodafone has over 140,000 sites across Europe and Africa.


In the past, there have been concerns that monitoring and modelling have been regarded as almost separate methods for the assessment of air pollution, so speakers outlined the case for greater integration. Similarly, the relationship between air quality, climate change and net zero was addressed because; while most climate mitigation measures help air quality, not all do.


Various presentations also addressed the role of air quality monitoring networks, low-cost sensors, and citizen science, as well as the utilisation of air quality data in traffi c management, for example.


AQE visitors were reminded that people spend a greater proportion of their time indoors than some whales spend under water, so whilst ambient air quality is important, indoor air quality is more so, and the role of ventilation and building management was discussed widely.


A full programme of presentations also addressed the latest issues in monitoring emissions to air. This included, for example, the measurement of biogenic carbon dioxide. The combustion of fuels with mixed fossil and biogenic components means that monitoring must discriminate between the two different sources of CO2


, and speakers explained how this can be achieved.


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