The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and other European Union directions play a significant role in formulating the United Kingdom’s environmental quality standards for freshwaters. The WFD is key to protecting groundwaters, lakes, rivers, estuaries and coastal areas. The Environment Agency is the body that develops, maintains and reviews freshwater standards in the United Kingdom. The UK Technical Advisory Group (UKTAG) provides insights to set the specific values for freshwater standards. The jurisdictions in the United Kingdom also have agencies responsible for enforcing environmental quality standards for freshwaters. The Environment and Heritage Services (EHS) is responsible in Northern Ireland, while the Natural Resources Wales is responsible in Wales. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) maintains freshwater quality standards in Scotland.
Freshwater quality standards provide the desired values for pollutants such as arsenic, chlorine, iron, zinc, and toluene. Guidelines are provided on appropriate measures in situations where the desired conditions are not met. The freshwater standards are aimed at the protection of biological elements. It allows for the protection of freshwaters from pollution.
Screening for pollution requires one to assess whether the concentration of the pollutant is greater than 10% of the environmental quality standards. Other tests need background concentration data, predicted environmental concentration (PEC), or river flow data. Screening is required when groundwater is taken and discharged to surface water when water usage results in an increased concentration of pollutants and where the quality of the river is worsened by water discharge. The standards are vital for protecting freshwater sources, ecosystems and human health.
EQS for Freshwaters in the UK can be found on the ESdat website. All compiled environmental guidelines and standards are shown. These are pre-loaded into ESdat Online.
ESdat is a single repository for storing, analyzing and reporting your environmental investigation and monitoring data. ESdat validates and imports data from laboratories, data loggers, field apps and spreadsheets. Users can filter and view data using the built-in graphing, mapping, tabulation, statistical and report generation tools. Increasing efficiency and confidence in the data are cited as key benefits by organizations using ESdat.
ESdat Online delivers a highly cost-effective and efficient approach to store your ongoing monitoring environmental data, optionally with a historical data upload provided as a getting started service. ESdat Online is perfect if you want a cloud-based system that collates and reports your ongoing laboratory and field results.
ESdat Server provides the advantages of ESdat Online with the option of adding ESdat Desktop for data experts to upload their historical data, effectively interrogate the raw data being used within the database, and automatically launch and send data to other Desktop Applications such as Surfer, ArcGIS and Excel.
A variety of complementary products are also available to help with related work, such as sample planning and electronic Chain of Custody (LSPECS), offline field data collection or bore logging (pLog), and production of bore logs (ESlog), public portals and customized reporting.
References
Environment Agency (2022). Surface water pollution risk assessment for your environmental permit. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/surface-water-pollution-risk-assessment-for-your-environmental-permit#screening-tests-freshwaters
UKELA (2017). Water Quality Standards. Retrieved from http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=291
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