Water Quality Monitoring, Modeling, and Analysis Strategies for Practitioners (1.2 CEUs)

Daily Schedule:
8:00am - Registration and coffee (1st day only)
8:30am - Session begins
4:30pm - Adjournment
Breakfast, two refreshment breaks and lunch are provided daily.

 

Description

Meeting water quality standards is challenging whether it is for drinking purposes, recreational activities, or aquatic lives. Environmental assessment (EA) is implemented in case of effluent discharges being proposed into the river network or if a development application is received that may have adverse impact on the receiving stream. Therefore, proper knowledge of the steps of EA methodology is important for successful completion of the process. One key piece of information that is required to conduct an EA is knowledge of the legislation/objectives/guidelines laid by the provincial or federal governments; procedures to get approvals; sources of the contaminants of concern; how to monitor and model the contaminants; interpreting results; and suggesting management practices to trade water quality parameters. This course will provide step-by-step knowledge of EA processes; provide an example of the EA process for a newly proposed waste water treatment plant, give hands on exercises to calculate assimilative capacity of a receiving water body, understand low flow calculations, and understand the design of mixing zones. The course will also provide a variety of federal and provincial legislations and guidelines helpful in the EA process and maintenance of water quality. The participants would be introduced to practical methods used to summarize monitored water quality data with a real world exercise on calculating Water Quality Index developed by Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. The strengths and weaknesses of different hydrologic and water quality models would also be discussed with examples of which model should be applied under what conditions. This course is a MUST for water resources, water quality, and environmental engineers, environmental planners, water quality technicians, specialists, scientists, and biologists; consultants; and policy makers.

 

Objective

To provide comprehensive knowledge of environmental assessment process, assimilative capacity calculations, low flow analysis (7Q20/7Q10), water quality issues, governmental guidelines, effluent discharge limits, monitoring designs, modeling, data analysis, and best management practices.

 

Target Audience

This course is designed for consultants and municipal/provincial engineers, biologists, environmental planners, scientists, and policy personnel who are involved in environmental assessment, urban development, watershed/sub-watershed/lot scale water quality management.

Day 1

• Class Environmental Assessment Process
  • Environmental Study Report
  • Assimilative capacity (for Certificate of Approval to water bodies)
    • Background surface water quality
    • Characteristics of the effluent
    • Species at risk
    • Water quality targets
    • Parameters of concern
    • Low flow analysis
    • Mixing zone calculations
    • Impact assessment
    • Offsetting contaminants
• Water quality and its importance
  • Drinking water quality
  • Aquatic water quality
  • Recreational water quality
• Water Quality objectives and guidelines
  • Provincial
  • Federal
• Water quality concerns (point and non-point  sources)
  • Point effluent discharges into water courses
  • Non-point effluent discharges into water courses
  • Concept of Nutrient trading
• Case studies on Assimilative Capacity reporting (Step by step procedure) 

Day 2 

• Monitoring water quality
  • Parameters of Concern
  • Ambient (Philosophy) grab sampling
  • Event sampling
    • Flow weighted
    • Discrete
    • Time weighted
  • Real-time (using probes)
  • Water temperature monitoring
• Data analysis
  • Ambient data analysis
  • Event data
  • Diurnal
• Event mean concentration (EMC) and procedures to calculate EMC
• Spills alarms using real-time water quality monitoring
• Water Quality modeling
  • Overview of water quality models (PLOAD, GWLF, HSP-F, SWAT, and HEC-RAS)
  • Which model is appropriate under what circumstance 
  • Generic steps to calibrate and validate a model
  • Use of models in decision making 

After Attending This Course You Will Be Able To

• Participate in an environmental assessment process
• Understand federal and provincial water quality standards and guidelines
• Calculate assimilative capacity for waste disposal into a water body
• Write reports on assimilative capacity to accompany Certificate of Approval application
• Design an effective monitoring program for assessing water quality
• Use appropriate analysis tools to summarize monitored data
• Select a water quality model based upon the needs and resources available
• Advise best management practices based on the source of the issues

Instructor

 

Dr. Amanjot Singh, P. Eng. has over 20 year experience in water resources while working in Canada, United States of America, Germany, and India. He has worked in different capacities including professor at an Indian university for 12 years. He is currently working as a water quality engineer with Credit Valley Conservation Authority and is also associated with McMaster University as an Adjunct Professor. His Ph.D. thesis on “Modelling runoff and soil erosion from rainfed lands under soil and water conservation measures” was published by Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany.

 

Dr. Singh’s current projects focus on reviewing applications for environmental assessment, ambient, event, and real-time telemeterized water quality monitoring, hydrologic and water quality modeling, lake monitoring and modeling, river assimilative capacity estimation, climate change risk assessment, and spills travel-time assessment for source water protection. He has presented his work in a number of conferences and symposiums. Dr. Singh works in close association with municipal, provincial, and federal governments, private consultants, and non-profit organizations.