This webinar examines the top 5 challenges to collecting water quality data and how new technology is tackling these tough and big issues.

Transcription

1 This webinar examines the top 5 challenges to collecting water quality data and how new technology is tackling these tough and big issues. 1

2 The presentation covers these topics, along with attendee questions at the end. 2

3 Presenters: Tim Finegan is the product manager for the environmental monitoring product line. He has been with YSI since Brandon Smith joined YSI last year as the assistant product manager for the environmental monitoring product line. Danielle Dumont is the host of the live webinar, and has been with YSI since YSI is part of the Xylem company. 3

4 Challenge 1: Frustration with repair and maintenance costs Collecting water quality data is expensive, and sampling and monitoring instrumentation is expensive as well. Instrument users face a challenge with an aging fleet and high repair bills. Common issues are water ingress, or flooding of sensors; corrosion on stainless steel parts; frustration with bent or broken pins; failures with antifouling wiper parking; and cables are often a problem out in the field. What is the industry doing to address these challenges? 4

5 When choosing a manufacturer, look for equipment that has: Wet-mate connectors. These connectors have long been used in harsh oceanographic applications. One benefit of the connectors is that they are impervious to moisture while you are connecting them. The cables also have integral strain reliefs and new Kevlar members that drive up the reliability and lifetime of the cables. On average, people see a 20% improvement in the life of the cable. New polymers and titanium. Advancements in material science have led manufacturers away from using stainless steel and PVC due to the challenges of these materials in the operating environment. New polymers stand up really well in saltwater, and titanium increases the durability of sensors, especially as a way to reduce flooding of the sensors. 5

6 Biofouling measures. Orient sensors in a flat plane to more easily wipe or clean the sensors of biofouling. This same form factor is also easier to swap out and interchange. Many manufacturers have introduced copper-based antifouling components to reduce maintenance costs, especially for continuous monitoring applications. Other antifouling features may include pumps, chemical injection, wipers, and shutters. Factory service. Prepaid factory service programs from a manufacturer can help you manage your ongoing maintenance costs. Often you can purchase up to 5 years of service upfront and build it in your capital costs. Some plans offer replacement ph caps and DO membranes on an annual basis. 6

7 Challenge 2: Uncertainty The second major issue that groups are facing now is uncertainty. That may seem a little vague, but we mean: uncertainty with future project requirements and with aging monitoring equipment. There are a lot of outside forces that can affect monitoring programs, and a great example is legislation. New regulations can change monitoring requirements in an instant, increasing your workload, and potentially requiring the purchase of new equipment. 7

8 For instance, in the past few years, the US EPA has rolled out a national initiative for nutrient reduction. In response, a lot of groups are now being asked to monitor nitrate levels, which they may not have done before. While examining human impacts on our waterways is definitely a valid policy, it s unexpected projects like this that may make monitoring programs cringe. Groups have to become flexible to take on this challenge, which requires flexible technology. Problem is flexibility with older technology isn t quite so easy to come by. How long can groups feasibly continue to use monitoring equipment and software that was developed up to 20 years ago? It s more difficult than ever to simply connect and pull data from older instruments. As consumer electronics rush forward with new operating systems, hardware, and communication options, it s a challenge to even stay compatible these days. Also, quite a bit of aging equipment depends on outdated processors and memory. You can t even buy most of this anymore as a consumer. 8

9 The good news is that there have been big strides made toward improving the flexibility of monitoring equipment in recent years. The main focus of product development has shifted to modularity and giving users the ability to create customizable sensor configurations. Rigid instruments are becoming a thing of the past. Look for versatile equipment that can be used in an array of applications, whether that s profiling a lake or long-term monitoring in an estuary. If you need to monitor dissolved oxygen, temperature, and algae concentrations this season, and ph, turbidity, and ammonia levels next season, then you should really only need one piece of equipment. Dozens of application-specific instruments are now being consolidated into one or two systems that are a jack of all trades. Purchasing monitoring equipment is an investment; make sure it pays off by supporting your varying needs over the next 5-10 years. Also, to make your data more accessible, look for equipment with built-in Bluetooth and the ability to easily connect to a computer via a USB connection for cable-free calibrations. 9

10 Challenge 3: Incomplete Data This challenge has been around a long time. It is a common frustration because many resources go into collecting field data. When you ve wasted a trip to the field because your instrument is not working properly, or you have a data gap because your instrument didn t start logging, this can cost you money. Technology improvements in the past 20 years have helped to address this challenge. 10

11 In the past 3-5 years, there have been improvements that are driven by smart sensor technology. Quality assurance can become automated, because smart sensors contain microprocessors. When you plug in the sensor, it starts working and compares its factory calibration with the user calibration to check for compliance. Redundant data logging. Data is stored both on the instrument and passed through via or data logger to a web server to give you a back-up data file externally. Instrument configuration can cause data issues. Old DOS windows with multiple menus were cumbersome. Smart sensors store their own calibration data and automatically configure themselves when plugged into any port on the instrument. Smart sensors can also send up a flag when a fault condition has occurred. The fault can be communicated in the software or as an LED light on the instrument. It is logged in memory and can be re-checked right before deployment. 11

12 Attendees of the live event voted in the poll. 12

13 Challenge 4: Shrinking Budgets When we surveyed customers and people in the industry, they often mentioned shrinking budgets. To be honest, instrumentation isn t going to help solve your budget issues. Monitoring equipment and field work is expensive. However, monitoring equipment can add efficiencies to your work that add up to savings and may get you to change the way your SOPs are currently written. 13

14 Here s a new possibility: A lab technician calibrates a set of sensors, which are sent to a field technician who pulls an instrument from the water, removes the deployed sensors and installs the new sensors. The instrument can be immediately redeployed in the water without using a handheld, laptop, or any cables. The automatic configuration and onboard calibration of smart sensors makes this possible now. This could revolutionize field services, and agencies are beginning to consider new SOPs for this technology. Total cost of ownership can be an overused phrase, but it often remains true that more expensive equipment upfront can be less expensive to maintain in the long run. For example, a smart ph sensor can be more expensive initially but its affordable replacement module for reagent helps you save money over a five year period. Smart sensors also offer concurrent calibration. Like sensors, such a 5 turbidity probes, can be calibrated together at the same time on a single instrument, rather than the standard SOP method which required each one to be calibrated individually on its instrument. Concurrent calibration allows you to use a lot less reagent and the calibration process happens more quickly. You can also easily see if there is an outlier among the like sensors. For turbidity calibration especially, which uses expensive polymer beads or toxic formazin, concurrent calibration helps you save on reagent use. 14

15 Challenge 5: Training Employees Learning to use monitoring equipment can be tricky. This is pretty clear if you ve ever seen the manuals, most of which are over 300 pages. Older technology often takes years of hands-on experience to fully understand. This is a problem with monitoring programs because it makes cross-training employees incredibly challenging, and work forces become more inflexible. Additionally, as more experienced employees change jobs or retire, the subtle tips and tricks they ve learned with equipment over the years is lost, and fresh faces are expected to somehow fill that knowledge gap. 15

16 In the past few years, the learning curve for instrumentation has been addressed in several ways by some manufacturers. When investing in monitoring equipment, look for products that have simple, intuitive software that can guide employees through difficult processes like calibration. Also, ensure that the sensors are plug and play to prevent any issues with configuration and set up, and look for software with built-in quality checks to make sure that if an error does occur, that you re warned before heading into the field. Search YouTube for the equipment you may be interested in. It s good to know what resources are available to you after a purchase. If offered, web tutorials are great assets that can help new employees get a head start on learning to use more advanced instruments. If you can travel, most manufacturers also offer free factory trainings where customers can interact with application engineers and technical support staff. You can check out manufacturers websites or ask sales reps to see if they offer trainings before making a purchase. 16

17 The EXO water quality sonde line from YSI incorporates user feedback into its design and its features address many of the challenges reviewed in this presentation. 17

18 Q&A (excerpt) 1. Frustration with short ph sensor life. Unfortunately this is common, because ph measurement is still done via an electrochemical sensor, rather than an optical sensor that has no consumables. So ph sensor does have a finite life. The potassium chloride in the sensor does leach out over time and has to be refilled or replaced. 2. Travel budget has been cut; can manufacturers come to us for training? Yes, often manufacturers will send someone to train large groups at an affordable price. 3. Wiper mis-parking. The EXO antifouling wiper has a 360-degree read switch that can report the wiper position as a wiper voltage via a data logger so you can check this remotely. 4. Are sensors EPA certified? Well, the EPA doesn t have set standards for environmental water (versus lab or process water), so it s hard to get specific certification. You can also check the testing and verification of manufacturers technology from the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT). 5. Can I really calibrate all my ph sensors at the same time? Yes. Using the guides in the software, smart ph sensors (such as EXO) can be calibrated together. First, with the sensors all on one sonde, calibrate using the 4 buffer, then switch to the 7 buffer, and then to the 10 buffer. 6. Are smart phycoerythrin sensors available for algae measurement? Yes, EXO BGA-PE sensors are now available. 18

19 Q&A (excerpt) 7. How long can a system deployment last? This is very application dependent. In tough applications, such as the coastal waters in Louisiana during the summer, DO probes often need to be maintained every couple weeks due to the low-flow, high-temperature, and aggressive biofouling conditions. However, during the winter in Norway, sondes such as EXO can be deployed for 6 months (sampling once an hour) and come out with great post-calibration. So it really depends on where you are monitoring, and careful preparation and anti-fouling components can help. 8. Are these sensors backward compatible? No, due to the huge changes in electronics and hardware, the smart sensors and software are not compatible with older equipment. 9. What about vandalism of equipment? A few suggestions for your monitoring site include inserting the sonde in a PVC pipe with a locking well cap; a locked job box that contains the sonde and data logger that is chained in place on a stream bank (solar panels are on outside of box). Often security requires some type of permanent structure. 10. What about noisy data? Many smart sensors have features to counteract interferences and protect data quality, such as the EXO total algae sensor takes turbidity interference into consideration. 19

20 Thank you. Feel free to contact us with your questions: