Key points
In the coming years, the UK will come under increasing pressure to take a leadership role in marshalling a strong response to the pressing environmental conundrums of our time. Many, such as climate change and deforestation, are currently receiving global attention – but this should not take attention away from the equally important considerations of water quality and supply safety, areas in which the UK is also facing numerous challenges.
According to many measures, the UK is currently performing well when it comes to maintaining a high-quality nationwide water supply, but, in other areas, the country has been accused of letting its standards slip when it comes to looking after the quality of its natural bodies of water, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is an area in which the public authorities and organisations responsible for looking after water quality are inevitably going to come under increased scrutiny in the coming years. As such, it remains essential that all involved in overseeing UK water quality standards continue to invest in the very latest elemental analysis and water treatment methods and technologies, as a failure to do so can have serious consequences.
The issues facing UK water quality
It is important to remember that in many ways, the UK can still pride itself on having some of the highest water quality standards in the world. The latest data from the Drinking Water Inspectorate shows that compliance with strict UK and European standards on drinking water quality stood at 99.96% for England and Wales in July 2018, with the corresponding figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland standing at 99.91% and 99.88%, respectively.
In a recent media statement, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) also highlighted national progress in improving the standard of UK bathing water quality, noting that 98.3% of bathing waters across the UK meet the minimum standard as of 2019 – up from 28% in the early 1990s – and 93% reach the highest standards of good or excellent.
However, other recent reports have painted a less encouraging picture of the UK’s water quality standards. Water classification results released by Defra in September 2020 indicated that only 16% of England’s waters and 14% of rivers currently meet the criteria for “good ecological status”, meaning no progress has been made on this front since 2016.
Additionally, none of England’s surface water bodies meet the current criteria for “good chemical status”, whereas 97% did in 2016. Although this is largely the result of a switch to tougher new assessment standards that are more responsive to certain chemical pollutants such as toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Defra’s conclusions about their progress in this area were less than positive.
The organisation noted that raw sewage discharges by water companies directly into rivers, chemical contamination from industrial sites and agricultural run-off are all creating an environment in which the UK is “running to stand still” in its efforts to achieve 100% healthy waters by 2027, and that the current performance is “a long way from the government’s ambitions”.
All of these challenges are being compounded by the difficulties that regulators have faced in carrying out essential monitoring of waterways and investigations of pollution incidents in the last 18 months, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has also faced criticism from campaign groups, such as Unchecked UK, for environmental deregulation initiatives that have made it harder to make the necessary progress on improving water quality.
How TOC analysis provides a solution
With environmental stewardship now a high priority on the public agenda, the pressure on the UK government and water industries to reverse these recent trends is only likely to increase, particularly once the mitigating circumstances provided by the pandemic have abated. As such, there has never been a more important time for industry stakeholders to renew their commitment to proactive water quality testing and assessment.
Fortunately, ensuring that the quality of UK water is maintained is less a case of developing all-new solutions, and more a case of ensuring that the tried-and-tested analytical methods used within the industry for many years continue to be applied diligently.
Among these, total organic carbon (TOC) and total bound nitrogen (TNb) analysis remains one of the most important screening parameters, with TOC analysers being widely used by those involved in environmental, municipal, industrial and pharmaceutical water analysis for decades. TOC and TNb levels in water have long been proven to work as a reliable indicator for the presence of decaying natural organic matter, as well as synthetic sources such as pesticides, fertilisers and industrial chemicals, meaning these tests can provide water suppliers with significant and actionable water quality data.
By regularly screening samples for their TOC concentrations, labs can identify the presence of potentially harmful impurities with considerable ease. Nitrogen and phosphorus determination can also be carried out to monitor the impact of agricultural fertilisers on water quality, data that can form the basis of regulatory action and interventions against industrial pollution.
Additionally, oxygen and hydrogen isotope analysis of environmental waters can provide a number of supplementary insights into hydrogeological systems, including reservoir residence times, groundwater recharge rates, mixing models and river basin dynamics. This gives researchers a broader and more holistic picture of how pollutants interact with the natural environment, and the steps that could be taken to curtail this process.
Modern TOC analysers are intended to be flexible enough to fulfil multiple roles at the same time, allowing them to be used across the complete spectrum of water samples, from ultrapure water to wastewater and seawater. These multipurpose devices can also be used to evaluate nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations simultaneously with TOC in water, further improving the efficiency of the analytical process, and ensuring that actionable results can be delivered in a matter of minutes.
Proactively addressing future challenges
In the coming years, public and industry conversations about water quality are likely to become more focused and detailed, as the scale of the future challenges involved in managing the UK water supply becomes more apparent.
The Environment Agency has taken more than 50 million samples to monitor water quality since 1998, and this is set to continue rising as efforts are made to tackle pollution and address any risks to the water supply posed by climate change. Defra is also currently pursuing its 25-year environment plan to improve at least three-quarters of the UK’s waters so they are close to their natural state, and this will not be possible without rigorous testing and analysis.
By fully embracing the need for a proactive, responsive and future-proof approach to water analysis, supported by the newest and most advanced analytical methods, suppliers can maintain the highest possible water quality standards across the UK – a commitment that will help to protect the entire population, as well as the ecosystem upon which we all depend.
