Environment Agency invests in COD wastewater analysis

Salford, UK— Water analysis company Hach Lange, based in Salford, Manchester, has won a four-year framework agreement from the Environment Agency’s National Laboratory Service. The deal covers the supply of wastewater analysis COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) test reagents and associated services.

Hach’s COD test follows the ISO 15705 standard method exactly, with all reagents supplied ready-to-use, in precisely the correct amounts in a small cuvette. COD is a measure of organic pollution in wastewater, and a frequently mentioned parameter in European legislation.

Hach now supplies the EA and ten of the main 11 water companies with COD tubes and associated instruments, according Mathew Dillon, Hach’s laboratory sales manager. The test, he added, “is extremely simple to perform and it incorporates several unique features designed to substantially eliminate human error.”

To perform a test, users add a water sample to a cuvette and leave it in a heater for 2 hours. At the end of this period the intensity of colour in the solution is directly related to the COD value in the sample, and can be readily measured, said Hach.