Environmental Monitoring
Westlakes Scientific Consulting deploys experienced technicians and dedicated laboratories to undertake routine monitoring for a wide range of contaminants within water, air, soil and sediment. Monitoring programmes have included:
- environmental radioactivity,
- meteorology,
- ambient background air and stack emissions,
- chemical and biological water quality (surface waters, groundwaters),
- hazardous ground gas monitoring,
- landfill gas and leachate,
- ground and surface water hydrology.
Monitoring programmes and the design and supervision of site investigations to gather data on soil, groundwater and ground-gas conditions comprise an important element of our Contaminated Land services. (add link)
WSC have also successfully deployed monitoring campaigns for non-standard observations to meet specific needs.
Examples of monitoring programmes we have developed include:
- Uranium and dust concentrations at mines.
- Mobile laboratory for air quality sampling near foot and mouth pyres.
- Suspended sediment, current velocity, water level, salinity and turbidity of streams.
- Estuarine biodiversity studies.
- Radiochemical and radiometric analysis using our extensive practical experience.
- Background levels of natural radioactivity and enhancements from industrial emissions in soils, sediments, biota .
- Effluent toxicity testing - interpretation and derivation of 'Environmental Quality Standards' (EQS).
- External gamma dose rates - temporal and spatial studies.
- Radionuclide uptake experiments for flora and fauna to improve radiological dose assessments.
- Particle size distributions of environmental and engineering material.
- Large programmes of periodic surface water and groundwater sampling, utilising a variety of best-practice sample collection and purging technologies.
- Landfill leachate monitoring and landfill gas measurements, using FID, infra-red and chemical cell detectors.
- Hydraulic conductivity measurements of groundwaters, using borehole pumping tests and slug testing.
- Soil moisture measurements, including application of neutron and capacitance probes.
- Design and supervision of the installation of soil, groundwater and ground-gas monitoring boreholes and collection of subsequent soil, gas and groundwater samples.
Contact
For more information about environmental monitoring services or to discuss how we could provide you with the environmental monitoring you need, please contact: env.assessments@westlakes.ac.uk
Alternatively, please contact the Environmental Science Administration Office: esadm@westlakes.ac.uk (Tel: 01946 514094).
