Save Money! – Change your monitoring frequency

One of the easiest ways to reduce your environmental cost is to reduce the amount of monitoring carried out at your facility. One of the conditions included in most IPPC, Waste and Trade Effluent permits allows the regulator to vary the frequency of monitoring once requested to do so by the licensee or permit holder.

As an example, take BOD monitoring of process effluent. This is a relatively expensive test and the licence will usually require COD to be monitored as well. If COD is required once per day and BOD required, say, once per week then you have probably established a good relationship between the two. If the relationship is pretty constant and has been proven over a minimum of one year then the regulator will probably allow a reduction in the frequency of BOD monitoring to monthly or perhaps even quarterly, as essentially both COD and BOD are measuring oxygen demand.

For emissions to atmosphere the savings can be even greater. If your licence requires monthly monitoring of a particular parameter and you can demonstrate that monitoring results are compliant and pretty constant then you can apply to the regulator for a reduction in monitoring frequency to at least quarterly and perhaps even annually.

In general monitoring frequencies in licences and permits in Ireland err on the side of being onerous when compared to other EU countries. There is a condition in your licence that allows you to change that frequency and save some environmental budget, so why not use it!