Earth Centre, Doncaster uses ABB’s system to help assess the health of the River Don

An integrated water quality monitoring system donated by ABB Limited is playing an important role in the recovery of the local environment at one of northern England’s leading environmental attractions. Earth Centre Denaby Main near Doncaster uses ABB’s system to help assess the health of the River Don and identify possible causes of pollution.

Earth Centre is built on the site of the disused Denaby Main colliery. Established in 1995, the Earth Centre is a showcase for environmental improvement and energy efficiency and is committed to reversing the considerable pollution generated by coalmining and other heavy industries in the area. In particular, the Centre is committed to educating visitors about the importance of sustainable development in reversing the impact that modern human activity can have on the environment.

ABB’s water quality monitoring system was donated to Earth Centre and installed in October 2001. In addition to the equipment, ABB also provided commissioning and training to ensure that the system runs properly.

The water quality monitoring system enables a complete assessment of the condition of river water to be derived for any given time during the day. The system comprises a range of products from ABB’s Analyze^IT suite, including a model 8232 ammonia monitor together with a 9380 ultra filtration unit, plus a Model 7976 five parameter Water Quality Monitor package.

The Model 7976 incorporates the highly successful 4600 Series analysers for pH, Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature and Turbidity, all connected to the appropriate sensor systems.

Designed to operate continuously with minimum intervention, measurements are made by pumping sample from the river which is circulated around the monitoring system and then returned to the river. The resulting data is recorded by an ABB ScreenMaster 2000 videographic recorder.

Ensuring that the river’s pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and temperature levels stay within normal limits is essential to the health of aquatic life. Sudden changes caused by effluent discharges or pollutants can quickly have a knock-on effect on the river’s biological system. For this reason, the Environment Agency is also keen to use the information gathered by ABB’s system, which is relayed to the local Environment Agency office in Rotherham via a modem link.

"The information that we receive from ABB’s water quality monitoring system provides us with a valuable extra tool that we can use to monitor the condition of the River Don," says John Hancox, Environment Protection Officer, Environment Agency. "ABB’s involvement in this project demonstrates the added value that can be achieved when companies and organisations such as Earth Centre work together in partnership. We would definitely be keen to see more of these types of partnerships in the future."

For Earth Centre, an added benefit of using the ScreenMaster is its ability to display data on its screen in a variety of different formats. This has proved ideal for helping the Centre to generate public interest in the water quality monitoring system.

"Everything we do at Earth Centre is aimed at engaging public interest in the environment and raising awareness of the effect we have on it," says Bernd Hoermann, Water Systems Manager at Earth Centre. "The information displayed by the ScreenMaster 2000 clearly shows our visitors what is happening in the river. We are currently developing a bigger display where people can find out more about how the system works and why monitoring the quality of the river is so important."