UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) has released two new reports on areas of interest to EBNet members – especially those in the ESWS and N2O WGs.
Faecal Indicator Organism die-off rates in UK rivers
A better understanding of faecal indicator die-off rates is needed to help the water industry decide where to focus future investment in WwTW improvements upstream of designated river bathing sites. This study included longitudinal river surveys and monitoring of in-river microcosms to test the impacts of light and temperature in three contrasting rivers, in spring, summer and autumn. Key observations include:
- Coliform numbers in microcosms often grew over the first day or two, especially with raised water temperatures and reduced light intensities.
- River surveys did not fully support these findings, indicating that other in-river processes may lead to faster die-off.
- Microbial source tracking indicated that there was very little avian or ruminant input, and organisms of human origin dominated.
The full report is available to view on UKWIR’s website HERE.
Workbook for Estimating Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Version 20
The UKWIR Carbon Accounting Workbook (CAW) has provided UK water companies with a consistent and transparent approach for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting since its first publication in 2005. This report sets out the changes that have been made in CAW Version 20. In addition to providing the annual update, this work focused on removing duplication of effort for performance commitment reporting, as well as clarifying and fixing a number of legacy issues within the tool. This report is not freely available to view but a Project Summary is available here.
For these and other reports see the Publications page on the UKWIR website.
