ALS Environmental are delighted to announce that their extension to scope has been granted for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and TVC in endoscopy and dialysis waters. They have satisfactorily submitted their request to UKAS and can now confirm that they have accreditation for these tests in this matrix type. Endoscopy and dialysis waters are considered to be part of their recently defined 'Ultra-Pure waters' matrix.

To see the updated UKAS schedule of accreditation, please click here.

Following on from the HSG 274 guidance about Legionella, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) have issued a technical bulletin regarding the reporting of all Legionella results. To help their customers comply with industry standard, ALS have taken the necessary steps to ensure their processes are in line with this standard in order to provide you, the customer, with accurate and reliable data.

ALS Environmental are pleased to inform customers that, following an extensive validation process, they are now able to offer UKAS ISO 17025:2005 accredited results for Process and Recreational Waters. The scope of the accreditation covers analysis for Total coliforms, E. coli, Clostridium perfringens, Enterococci and TVCs. In addition to this they are also able to offer analysis on Pure water for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, again under the UKAS ISO 17025:2005 accreditation. This accreditation allows for a wider scope of analysis with a greater proportion of analysis being spread across both the Wakefield and Coventry laboratories.

ALS Environmental are delighted to announce that they have significantly increased their footprint of drop-off locations in and around the Central & Greater London area.

All of these drop-off locations will be collected daily after 18:00 by a refrigerated ALS vehicle and all samples from these locations will arrive in the Coventry laboratory before 01:00 to allow for processing and analysis to commence the following morning. Every ALS drop-off location has an industrial refrigerator which has been calibrated and is checked daily to ensure temperature compliance.

Electrical engineering firm Smith Brothers has secured a hat-trick of senior appointments as the high voltage specialist prepares for the next wave of growth.

John Benson has joined the team as Head of EHV (Extra High Voltage) Projects. With more than 30 years’ industry experience and a number of high profile brands on his CV – including Siemens, Freedom and Anglian Water – he was the perfect candidate to oversee Smith Brothers’ contracts of 66kV and above. This newly-created role has been established in response to the increasing number of enquiries being received for high voltage primary works throughout the country.

Yorkshire-based high voltage power specialist Smith Brothers has added the energisation of two prominent solar farms to its fast-growing success story.

Having been assigned the design and build contract for Wreay Farm in Carlisle by renewables developer Anesco, the team of electrical engineering experts was also enlisted as the independent connections provider by solar giant Ethical Power for Netley Farm, near Southampton.

With work on the Wreay Farm energisation beginning in December last year, the engineers were tasked with laying cabling to connect the site to the DNO, as well as building two 33kV substations – one brick structure for Electricity North West Ltd, and one Glass Reinforced Plastic customer enclosure.

But what started as a straightforward connection project soon became more complex, as the team had to contend with landowner requests which led to new cabling routes. The original 1.8km dig for six cables to be laid grew to 2.6km, incurring a number of road closures, council negotiations and licensing difficulties.

Air Monitors (Tewkesbury) has announced the launch of three new ambient air quality monitoring instruments. “Highly innovative technology is employed within all three monitors,” says Managing Director Jim Mills. “For example, the Spectra-1 from PKL Technologies is a robust, portable open-path TDLAS monitor, capable of monitoring a wide range of target gases remotely. In addition, the Model 211 and the Model 405, both from 2B Technologies, employ USEPA Federal Equivalent Methods for the interference-free measurement of Ozone and NO2 respectively.”

Portable and lightweight, the Spectra-1 can be easily transported from site to site, or left in place as a continuous monitor. The tuneable laser can be set to measure a specific gas from a range of options including HF, CH4, NH3, CO2, CO, HCN, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, H2S and others. Consequently, this instrument is ideal for applications such as landfill, fracking, fenceline monitoring, fugitive emissions, greenhouse gas monitoring and other projects where environmental monitoring is required.

Nigel Grimsley, Managing Director of OTT Hydrometry is urging those responsible for flood prevention and management to take action this summer to ensure they are protected before the arrival of severe weather. “Saturated soil and blocked channels contribute to the severity of flooding, but in many cases it is the location and intensity of rainfall that contributes to the speed with which flooding occurs. Early warning of intense rainfall events or blocked channels is therefore essential. Recent advances in technology mean that it is now relatively simple and low cost to set up advanced warning systems so that appropriate measures can be taken quickly and effectively,” he says.