United Utilities is looking to the supply chain for input on solutions for its continuous river monitoring requirements ahead of going out to tender.

 Image: United Utilities Blackburn Water Treatment Works

Under Section 82 of the Environment Act, water companies have a new duty to protect the environment from the effects of discharges from storm overflows and wastewater treatment works. United Utilities operates approximately 2300 Combined Sewer Overflows and 575 waste water treatment works which are impacted by the new requirement.

This requires the monitoring of the following parameters to monitor the quality of water potentially affected by upstream and downstream discharges:

• levels of dissolved oxygen
• temperature and pH values
• turbidity
• levels of ammonia
• anything else specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.

The measurements will typically be made in rivers and/or a local measurement kiosk. In terms of functionality, potential solutions will need to continuously monitor and log data (every 15 minutes), together with providing a telemetry interface and a public facing portal which can display values in near real time and provide reporting capabilities. 

United Utilities is now seeking input for the equipment operating in such an environment - both during routine operation and under exceptional conditions such as storms. At this stage the water company is also interested in 3rd party validation of sensor monitoring technology.

United Utilities is looking for 2 installation solutions:

• pumped kiosk-based systems which will be used for PR24 planning
• in-situ suitcase systems - the option where it is known that a pumped kiosk installation is unfeasible and will remain unfeasible in future.

Interested suppliers are being invited to provide indicative costs per installation, based on the following procurement routes:

• Supply of instrumentation
• Design, build and installation of instrumentation sampling kiosks
• Service and maintenance of the above
• Provision, management and administration of telemetry and a web based portal for the above

Instrumentation and the monitoring arrangement shall be suitable for monitoring the required parameters in an appropriate range for the application. Solutions may be based on multi-parameter sondes, wet chemistry analysers or a combination of both.

United Utilities also wants to understand:

• proposed solutions
• costs
• interest to provide or ability to provide all elements
• risks
• volume supply capacity per month/year
• accuracy/uncertainty
• repeatability
• maintenance intervals

The water company is looking for interested parties to work with Defra and regulators to establish an accredited quality system for the calibration and maintenance of real time continuous water quality monitors.

Click here to access the Periodic Indicative Notice