Water resistance

MCERTS is the Environment Agency’s (EA’S) Monitoring Certification Scheme that provides a framework in which environmental measurements can be made in accordance with the EA’s quality requirements.

The scheme, which encompasses both emissions to air and emissions to water (river or sewer), is intended to set a benchmark of performance that is expected by the EA from instrument manufacturers, laboratories and process operators.

Within the emissions-to-air scheme, which was established in 1996, product certification for continuous emission-monitoring systems (CEMS) and continuous ambient air-monitoring systems (CAMS) is, by now, very mature.

There is currently a choice of more than 130 certified products and the CEMS MCERTS standard is now equivalent to the European Standard, EN 15267, notes Sira, the certification body that operates the MCERTS monitoring schemes on behalf of the EA.

The personnel certification scheme is also developed, with more than 500 people registered on the scheme as level 1 or level 2 stack testers, added Sira, which offers certification, auditing and training services for both end-users and process operators

Major hold-up
On the other hand, there is still more progress required with the MCERTS emissions-to-water scheme.

A major hold-up on this second front has been the slowness among many device manufacturers to introduce MCERTS-certified measurement products. This, along with the economic downturn, has hampered the EA’s efforts to enforce compliance throughout the process industries.

Product certification for emissions-to-water devices is divided into three parts: for automatic samplers, online analytical equipment and flowmeters. There is also a separate standard for portable water monitoring equipment.

According to Sira, there are slightly more than 30 product conformity certificates for water monitoring products across the three equipment types.

Industry observers put the main delay down to the longer development times required for analytical monitoring devices. This area, they point out, encompasses a broad range of water quality parameters, including measurements for pH, ammonia, turbidity, conductivity and heavy metals.

For its part, however, Sira expects the number of MCERTS devices to increase soon, in line, it said, with increased interest from manufacturers and process operators.

At the last biennial Water, Wastewater and Environmental Monitoring (WWEM) conference in 2008, ABB and Siemens got the ball rolling with the introduction of MCERTS magnetic flow meters, while YSI also introduced a certified, multi-parameter, online system.

Many vendors, though, have since been slow to reveal their MCERTS-development hand, perhaps concerned that this might prompt competitors to certify similar products and so cost a potential lead-time advantage of three to six months.

Projects in the pipeline
However, there are now believed to be around a dozen development projects in the pipeline, with at least four manufacturers due to announce new MCERTS products at this year’s WWEM in November.

As Paul Wiggins of the EA reports, there are a high number of MCERTS product applications for both flow and analytical instruments and he expects many of these to receive certificates at the WWEM event.

“A good number of flow meters have now achieved MCERTS, so all new and replacement meters must now be certified,” said Wiggins. “We can now look forward to a time when the number of certified analytical instruments will enable us to enforce the MCERTS policy for all new and replacement water-quality monitoring instruments.”

Process plant owners/operators, meanwhile, still have a significant incentive to install MCERT devices - or push their suppliers to introduce them - under the EA’s Operator Monitoring Assessment (OMA) scheme. This has been introduced to strengthen the agency’s auditing of self-monitoring arrangements for industrial processes covered by the Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR).

“A high OMA score can be obtained by process operators by installing MCERTS products, or by using MCERTS services,” explains Sira. “Therefore, both the operator and equipment manufacturers can realise the financial benefits of MCERTS certification.”

Sira also reports progress on another front, with more than 200 EPR sites now certified for the self-monitoring of effluent flow. This is helping operators improve the accuracy of flow-monitoring regimes and, in some cases, saving significant amounts of money: operators are charged on both volume and quality of the effluent that is being discharged.

Another MCERTS initiative being developed is Environmental Data Management Software for certification of data-management applications, covering both emissions to air and emissions to water. Mike Healy, technical advisor for the EA, said: “Much of the data we receive for regulatory purposes comes via computer applications that store and manipulate raw data. Poor software and data management can seriously affect the quality of the data and inappropriate environmental outcomes may arise.”