All PPC regulated sites with an effluent flow monitoring requirement must be inspected under the MCERTS scheme by 31st December 2008, and this is a good example of the ways in which the Agency's monitoring certification scheme impacts upon process operators.
The Environment Agency has been heavily involved in the planning of the WWEM 2008 Conference on Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring, and MCERTS is set to feature prominently.

WWEM organiser Marcus Pattison says "The WWEM events were created to provide a focus for the exchange of knowledge relating to technologies and regulations within the water sector. MCERTS is a hot topic at the moment and will feature in many of the Conference speeches and Workshops. Furthermore, the Gala Dinner sponsored by SIRA, will include the presentation of MCERTS Certificates and many of the Exhibitors will display MCERTS approved equipment. However, WWEM is the world’s largest event of its kind and has become a focal point for everyone with an interest in testing and monitoring. Each year the number of international visitors grows significantly because a visit to WWEM provides an opportunity to see the whole water monitoring sector in one visit, and to meet with many of the industry's leading figures."

WWEM will take place on the 5th and 6th November 2008 at the Telford International Centre, just North of Birmingham.

Commenting on the importance of MCERTS, Environment Agency Chief Executive, Dr Paul Leinster says, "The Agency is committed to protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales and our Monitoring Certification Scheme, MCERTS, helps us to achieve this by giving us confidence in monitoring data provided by operators. It makes clear what we expect, whether monitoring emissions to air, discharges to water or analysing soils. MCERTS covers monitoring equipment, laboratories carrying out testing, and effluent flow monitoring arrangements. MCERTS is already mandatory as a condition in many of the permits we issue and will be extended to others in the future as part of our commitment to modernising regulation.”

The WWEM Conference topics have been designed to mirror the most recent changes in the monitoring sector for water and land, with presentations from the Environment Agency, SIRA, TUV NEL, UKAS, QROS and Critical Flow Systems.

Speakers will provide an update on the Environment Agency's Modern Regulation Programme and its impact on monitoring, including the roles of MCERTS and OMA (Operator Monitoring Assessment) in the delivery of the programme.
OMA has been successfully applied to the monitoring of industrial air emissions and is now being extended to include discharges to the aquatic environment.

The OMA scheme is designed to provide a 'yard stick' by which operators' monitoring arrangements can be measured in a consistent and transparent manner. OMA will produce a score that reflects the quality and reliability of self-monitoring undertaken by an operator. It consists of four sections:

OMA 1- Management, training and competence of personnel;
OMA 2 - Fitness for purpose of monitoring methods;
OMA 3 - Maintenance and calibration of monitoring equipment;
OMA 4 - Quality assurance of monitoring.

Each section contains a series of elements, or questions, against which the Agency will assess the operator’s arrangements and award a score. Each element will be assigned a score of one to five. (The higher the score the better the monitoring)

The implementation of OMA has meant that process operators are looking for ways to reduce risk and uncertainty in monitoring, and several presentations will describe ways in which the MCERTS scheme can help.

In addition to the use of continuous and portable monitoring equipment, other presentations will cover the application of MCERTS in the analysis of contaminated land and in the sampling and laboratory analysis of water.
WWEM visitors will be able to tailor their visit to best meet their needs by attending those presentations and workshops that are of most interest.
The workshops will offer something for everyone, covering water level and flow monitoring, water quality monitoring, wireless data collection and laboratory analysis in applications such as wastewater, drinking water, process water, rivers, reservoirs, groundwater, contaminated land and marine water.

Many of the world's leading analytical services companies, instrument manufacturers and testing service providers will run workshops covering a comprehensive  range of measurands including heavy metals, trace organics, turbidity, ammonium, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, chlorine, TOC, particle count and many more. The Workshop titles tend to address one key, tightly defined topic, and as such they attract audiences with a genuine interest in the subject. This provides attendees with useful help and advice, and provides exhibitors with essential feedback from users of their products or services.

Visitors to WWEM include staff at every level within regulators, water companies, industrial manufacturers, consultants, education, researchers, process engineers and laboratory analysts.

Entry to WWEM 2008 will be free to all Pre-Registered visitors (saving a daily admission fee of £20) Pre-Registered visitors will be entitled to free onsite parking, free lunches and refreshments on both days of the event, and complimentary entry to all workshops.