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Water Pollution Monitoring
Who monitors water pollution?
• Environment Agency– may give consent to
discharge– under Environmental
Protection Act (1990)
• OFWAT ( Office of Water Services)– regulates the water
industry– provides a consumer
complaints service,– under the water
quality standards.
What needs to be monitored?
• Physical properties – Water temperature– Water depth– Turbidity (TSS)
• Useful additional information that helps to provide predictions of the impact of a pollution incident
What needs to be monitored?
• Chemical properties– Oxygen content– Nitrates– Phosphates– Ammonium– pH– Salinity– Heavy metals– Biological oxygen demand
• With chemical properties we can directly identify the pollutant by source and take the appropriate actions
• Needs training and is time consuming
What needs to be monitored?
• Biological properties– Biological Index
• uses indicator species• Different species will appear/disappear at
known levels of contamination
– Pros• Cheap to undertake• Gives instant results• No need to identify individual pollutants
– Cons• Problems of identification• Could be another cause for an organism’s
absence
Indicator Species
• Species of plants or animals that, by their presence or absence indicate how polluted the environment is
• Sulphur dioxide = lichens• Water quality = invertebrates• May indicate:
– pH– Oxygen levels– Pollutant levels
Clean water
Low pollution level
High pollution level
Water louse Bloodworm
Very High pollution level
Rat-tailed maggot Sludgeworm