Conductivity is a measure of the ability of water to pass an electrical current. Conductivity in water is affected by the presence of  inorganic dissolved solids such as chloride, nitrate, sulphate, and phosphate anions (ions that carry a negative charge) or sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, and aluminium cations (ions that carry a positive charge). Organic compounds like oil, phenol, alcohol, and sugar do not conduct electrical current very well and therefore have a low conductivity.

Discharges to water courses can change the conductivity depending on their make-up. A leaking sewage pipe would raise the conductivity because of the presence of chloride, phosphate, and nitrate; an oil spill would lower the conductivity. Measuring for conductivity is particularly useful for construction sites, as to measure for all contaminates in all their possible receptor water courses would be prohibitively expensive and not very efficient. However, measuring conductivity will immediately show there is a problem and action needs to be taken.

Remote Datum Ltd can offer our  RDL V01. The V01 is an economical,  totally autonomous system utilising GPRS mobile phone telemetry that is placed in a water course and measures the water conductivity taking account of any temperature fluctuations that will alter the water’s ability to conduct electricity. The V01 is placed in the water course whilst the water is known to be free from site pollutants (or placed upstream) to obtain baseline readings. Once they are established, parameters can be set remotely to trigger alarms via SMS text and email, should those parameters be breached. All the data can be viewed graphically on the Remote Datum web bureau and the data can be downloaded as a CSV file for use with Excel or any spreadsheet.

Other remote monitoring solutions that Remote Datum Ltd  can provide include :-