Super Quality Measuring Sites

This project has been a continuation on the work already done on the topic of “Super quality measuring sites”.

The work with testing new technology and bringing forth concepts for online monitoring of drinking water quality has now been taken one step further. This project was seeking to, in time, be able to replace time-demanding analytical methods for microbiological quality monitoring with faster methods. It could sometimes take up to a week before quality could be determined.

In this project, VA SYD, Sydvatten, SWR, and NSVA collaborated to measure water quality with the help of online flow cytometry. During one year, summer 2022 to summer 2023, flow cytometrical data was collected. This data was correlated to other information collected from our utilities, such as hydraulic parameters, ordinary laboratory test data, as well as known events in the distribution network. The information was required to further approach an understanding for a concept for the solutions for online water quality monitoring.

Several online flow cytometry devices were used to monitor bacterial concentrations in multiple sites in the drinking water distribution network. These sites have been evaluated to be able to answer the question where one should establish super quality measuring sites in the future.

This data collection project is yet another important piece of the puzzle in the process of establishing online monitoring of drinking water quality in a larger scale. The work is now a part of the project Implementation of online water quality measurement.