Conference Review

WWEM 2008 was a Massive Success!

Conference
Whilst the Exhibition and Workshops represented an opportunity to meet the world's leaders in the field of environmental monitoring, the conference themes were assembled with the help of the Environment Agency and as such they focused mainly on regulations that apply to England and Wales.
The Conference sessions were chaired by Stuart Newstead (Secretary of SWIG and formerly Environment Agency) who commented that attendance was good and delegate feedback had been extremely positive, adding, "Many of the presentations covered themes that related to one or more of the MCERTS schemes and it is pleasing to see that MCERTS is becoming well established in the water sector."
Delegates responded positively to a proposal from Stuart to convert the MCERTS Standards for water monitoring equipment to European (CEN) Standards. Stuart will be looking to kick start this process shortly.
John Tipping, who leads the Environment Agency’s MCERTS team, gave a presentation in which he outlined the Agency’s Better Regulation programme. However, he started by reminding delegates that whilst most environmental performance indicators have shown improvements in recent years, there is no cause for complacency. “For example,” he added,
“it is estimated that average life expectancy in the UK is reduced by 7 to 8 months as a result of air pollution. So, there is clearly a great deal of work ahead of us. We need more businesses to take responsibility for their activities and manage the environment in better ways and for our part, we need to provide clear and accessible advice on how to achieve this.”
John explained how, in April 2008, over 40 separate pieces of environmental regulation have been consolidated into a new Environmental Permit Regime (EPR). EPR has streamlined and combined separate waste and pollution control (PPC) systems thereby enabling a single environmental permit and common procedures. EPR delivers more flexibility for industry, a simpler risk-based system for regulators and continued protection of the environment and human health. Commenting on the importance of the MCERTS schemes, John said, “Operator self-monitoring (OSM) is enshrined within the EPR and MCERTS is a fundamentally important feature of OSM. It is very pleasing to see the progress MCERTS has made since the last WWEM in 2006; at the previous conference we received a number of complaints and resistance to the new schemes, but this year the questions that we received during the Conference and at our exhibition stand, were all about how to implement the schemes effectively.”
Subsequent presentations, including that given by the Agency’s Paul Wiggins, provided an update on progress in the MCERTS schemes for:

• Continuous Water Monitoring Equipment
• Direct Toxicity Assessments Of Effluents
• Portable Equipment For Water Monitoring
• Sampling And Chemical Testing Of Water
• Self Monitoring Of Effluent Flow

Paul Wiggins explained that the MCERTS schemes are evolving with the help of all concerned. For example, he mentioned that chlorine and cyanide have been added to the list of parameters for continuous monitors since WWEM 2006 and COD will be added to the portable standard before the end of 2008.
Paul also praised those companies that have already gained MCERTS certificates for their products because the certificates prove that the products ‘do what they say on the tin’ which provides them with a marketing advantage.

Sira's Bob Cooper gave an update on the MCERTS scheme for the self monitoring of effluent flow. He reported excellent progress on water utility processes with a discharge of >50m3/day - all 3600 of which will soon be certified.
From 2007 approximately 500 industrial sites (that have discharge flow in their PPC/EPR permits) also have to comply with the MCERTS flow scheme and the deadline by which site inspections and management system audits must be undertaken, or by which an approved inspector must be contracted, is 31st December 2008.
Bob explained the detailed requirements of a management system inspection and emphasised the fact that "responsibility is nine tenths of quality."
Looking forward, Bob said, "The next stage of MCERTS for water flow will be to include those industrial sites covered by the Water Resources Act 1991."
Debbie Hudson from UKAS gave a presentation on a new MCERTS performance standard (published in July 2008) for organisations conducting the sampling and chemical testing of water. She explained that this new requirement for accreditation has been created as a result of the Environment Agency’s move to Operator Self Monitoring, which for Water Utilities will commence 1st April 2009.

Sampling and chemical testing of water is carried out to assess the quality of the water environment and to assess effluents discharged by businesses to the environment. The first part of this MCERTS scheme focuses on effluent from sewage treatment works, because Water Companies will soon be required to monitor their own effluents. Debbie estimated that initially 2,748 locations will be affected by the new requirement, but that this number will rise as the scheme expands in the future.
She explained that UKAS and the Environment Agency have published a timeline which outlines the key milestones for organisations that wish to hold accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 for this MCERTS Standard.
Water treatment companies are currently submitting applications for accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025. However, the Deadline for applications to MCERTS Waters is 1st January 2009 and the assessments for these applications will be completed by 31st December 2009.
The first grants of accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 for MCERTS Waters will take place from 1st June 2010 at which point accredited laboratories and sampling organisations will be listed on the UKAS web site.

"The PMA Ltd experience was very positive.
Certainly we met a significant number of new potential
customers including both industrial and food
processing sector companies. This is something new
for the WWEM as historically we have met mostly
municipal water companies in the past. Thumbs up all
round for that. The hall itself was very well laid out with
an ever expanding mix of truly excellent exhibits.
A number of customers both old and new stated more
than once that the WWEM had replaced IWEX for them
in terms of monitoring and control instrumentation."

Roger Powell , Sales Director (Analysers),
Process Measurement & Analysis Ltd

Jeff Ruddle from UKAS provided an update on the MCERTS scheme for soils. He said that there are now more than 30 organisations that are accredited to MCERTS for soil analysis covering a wide range of analytes. The scheme was introduced to create a level playing field in soil analysis and to deliver confidence in results.
Jeff highlighted the importance of sampling in achieving an accurate, representative result and cited work by Prof Mike Ramsey at the University of Sussex which showed 94% of uncertainty in test data being derived from sampling. He concluded by saying that without confidence in sampling we cannot have confidence in the whole measurement process.
Continuing the soil assessment theme, Colin Green from QROS outlined the difficulties in interpreting laboratory data for risk assessment and waste classification as a result of the non-homogeneity of soil on contaminated sites. He also demonstrated how the integration of on-site analysis and soil sampling under an MCERTS umbrella can minimise this problem.