Bathing Waters and Shellfish Waters

Throughout the world, it’s important for countries to have clean beaches and healthy shellfish.  This can only be achieved through good water quality which in turn relies on understanding, managing and controlling sources that impact water quality (e.g. discharges from wastewater, agriculture and industry).
 
In the European Union, the standards for bathing water quality are upheld in the 2006 Bathing Waters Directive which supersedes the 1976 Bathing Waters Directive.  Intertek has been at the forefront of bathing water management and improvement for more than twenty years.  Our Modelling Plus⁺ technology provides clients with advanced predictive models as well as detailed data analysis and environmental asset management systems.   
 
The impact at a bathing water or shellfish water area can be measured in terms of bacterial concentrations - the higher the concentrations, the higher the impact.  However, it can be very difficult to pinpoint what contributed to the concentration of bacteria.  Often there are several contributing sources (e.g. discharges from wastewater, agriculture and industry).   This makes it very difficult to know where to target water quality improvement efforts.  A key component of Modelling Plus⁺ is our Source Apportionment technology.   This cutting-edge technology is able to work out what proportion of the impact is attributable to each source.  Once known, investment can be targeted at the sources that offer the most effective way of improving water quality and delivering the desired environmental outcome (i.e. in terms of cost-benefit).  
 
Intertek has undertaken more bathing water and shellfish water quality assessments in the UK than any other company involved in the industry. We have vast experience managing and delivering the most comprehensive bathing and shellfish water management studies in the industry. Our work has influenced policy makers at both the national and European level and our specialists have acted as expert witness at public enquiry and court cases.
Intertek’s bathing and shellfish water quality assessments have proven to be a positive influence on water quality around the world. We’ve helped our clients win and maintain ‘Blue Flag’ awards for quality – the ultimate, globally recognised accolade, for bathing and shellfish water quality. Our studies and programmes deliver real time information that helps you make informed decisions about the best ways to improve your bathing water and shellfish water quality.  
 
Intertek offers Total Quality Assurance strategic assessments that help you manage all of your assets that may impact catchments, rivers and coasts.  After considering engineering and environmental constraints we optimise hundreds of solutions that improve performance and ultimately provide you with capital and operational savings. In the unfortunate event of water quality failure, we provide forensic investigation techniques that allow you to better understand the causes.  We use our Modelling Plus⁺ technology to reverse engineer the impact and identify and pinpoint the failing source that may be due to an operational issue (e.g. a pump failure) or an a-typical discharge. We’ve also pioneered Beach Management Systems that are used by Water Utilities.  Intertek’s Beach Management Systems use short term weather forecasts to predict short term water quality. This allows operators and other stakeholders the ability to understand how their day to day operations are contributing to bathing water and shellfish quality.