Case Study enitial adds value to Viridor’s environmental monitoring
Introduction Environmental monitoring in the waste management and recycling industry has been a paper-based process for a long time. The demand to capture data digitally has been growing but it’s only recently that monitoring using mobile technology has become both practical and affordable. In addition, waste management and environmental companies require faster and more accurate methods of collecting field data to comply with environmental
regulations as well as save time, money and minimise errors. Environmental monitoring specialist enitial has worked with Viridor, one of the UK’s leading resource management and recycling companies, to implement a digital field data collection system called enidata to improve the accuracy of recordings at its facilities.
The challenge Viridor operates over 320 facilities across the UK including 39 landfill sites which require intensive environmental monitoring. In accordance with environmental permits from the Environment Agency (EA), the company routinely monitors a number of factors at its facilities. This includes the quantitative measurement of the level and quality of groundwater, surface water and leachate as well as surface emissions (such as hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulphide). In addition, the external environment beyond the boundary of the sites is measured qualitatively which includes litter, noise, odour, flies and dust. Within the industry, such data used to be manually recorded in a notebook and transferred to a spreadsheet at a later stage. This can result in transcription errors which meant either erroneous readings were supplied to the Environment Agency or they had to be taken again. Viridor was keen to develop new methods of data collection to reduce transcription errors and introduce real-time data validation in the field in order improve the quality and efficiency of its environmental data. This solution has been transferred from landfill monitoring across Viridor’s portfolio of hard build infrastructure including anaerobic digestion plants and In-Vessel Composting facilities.
The solution enitial worked
with Viridor to develop enidata, a PDA-based electronic data capture device with modules for monitoring groundwater, surface water, leachate, surface emissions and the impact of its facilities. The unique and user-friendly PDA-based data collection system, can record a number of variables such as water levels, temperature, pH and electrical conductivity as well as logging additional comments if boreholes at its landfill sites are blocked or need repairs. There are also a variety of modules to support field infrastructure audits and site inspections.
Case Study enitial adds value to Viridor’s environmental monitoring
The benefits
Traceability
enidata replaces paper-based data recording which helps to speed up the process, improve efficiency, eliminate transcription errors and increase the accuracy of readings. Waste management companies can then take action quickly should there be any issues to reduce the potential impact and cost.
The date, time and location by GPS are automatically recorded for all sampling and monitoring activities and enidata also has the ability to provide photographic evidence. This information can then be linked with Google Earth and allows the technician to pinpoint any issues of environmental concern.
Live self-validation
Reporting
The system self-validates by checking environmental data against historic trends and thresholds to ensure inaccurate readings are minimised.
Data is streamed directly to enitial’s central server within minutes of completion and bespoke data reports can be generated within one hour of completing the monitoring. Plus, the data can be more easily shared with the Environment Agency, for example.
enidata is dramatically improving the efficiency of environmental monitoring programmes at Viridor sites by increasing the accuracy and speed of recordings. Its precise recordings help us to comply with our permits more easily and reduce the number of queries from the EA about the readings.
The system’s GPS function provides evidence to us and the Environment Agency that the field teams are monitoring and collecting all the required information at the correct location and at the right time. Setting the standards with enitial’s management team means that the data is impartial and trusted. Chris Dussek, Head of Environmental Management at Viridor
About enitial enitial is a leading independent provider of emission and pollution monitoring, control and management services for sites such as landfill and water treatment facilities in the UK. It works with the EA, Severn Trent Water and waste management companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve environmental management performance and reduce pollution incidents. enitial’s environmental monitoring and sampling activities cover gas, landfill gas, surface water level, flow and quality, groundwater level, recharge and quality, noise, air quality, soil contamination and effluent.
Emission and pollution control activities include landfill gas extraction and combustion, landfill leachate, extraction, treatment and disposal, contaminated groundwater treatment, effluent treatment and disposal. Its management services include complete closed landfill management, facilities management, specialist investigation services such as pumping trials, control infrastructure evaluation and diagnosis, project management, bespoke data capture, management and reporting along with dedicated training programmes.
enidata is available to any organisation that needs to capture data in the field. To find out how enitial can help your business, contact John Rowse on 01902 798798 or j.rowse@enitial.co.uk or visit www.enitial.co.uk