scholarly journals Assessment of the pollution incident performance of water and sewerage companies in England

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0251104
Author(s):  
Sarah Purnell ◽  
Nick Mills ◽  
Keith Davis ◽  
Christopher Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Water Industry ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Pumping Stations ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pollution Events

Comparison of the severity, frequency and self-reporting of pollution incidents by water and sewerage companies is made difficult by differences in environmental and operational conditions. In England, the deterioration in pollution incident performance makes it important to investigate common trends that could be addressed to improve pollution management. This study presents the first external analysis of available national pollution incident data, obtained through Environmental Information Regulations 2004 requests to the English Environment Agency. The study aimed to assess and compare the pollution incident performance of water and sewerage companies in England. Results indicated that there were significant variations in numbers of pollution incidents reported and the severity of the impact on the water environment for different asset types (operational property). There were significant positive relationships between the self-reporting percentages and total numbers of reported pollution incidents per 10,000 km sewer length for pumping stations and sewage treatment works. These results indicate that in at least these asset types, an estimated 5% of pollution incidents could go unreported. Pollution events that go unreported can lead to more severe impacts to the water environment, so rapid and consistent reporting of incidents is crucial for limiting damage. The results have significance for the water industry internationally, because the issues presented here are not restricted to England. In the short-term, research should focus on investigating best practice and standardising reporting of pollution incidents, so that an accurate baseline of the number of pollution incidents occurring can be determined.

scholarly journals Assessment of the pollution incident performance of water and sewerage companies in England

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Purnell ◽  
Nick Mills ◽  
Keith Davis ◽  
Christopher Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Water Industry ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Pumping Stations ◽  
Incident Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pollution Events

Comparison of water and sewerage company pollution performance in relation to severity, frequency and self-reporting of pollution incidents is made difficult by differences in environmental and operational conditions. In England, the deterioration in pollution incident performance across the water industry, makes it important to investigate common trends that could be addressed at national and regional levels. Yet, to date there has been no external peer-reviewed analysis of national pollution incident data in England. This project aimed to analyse available pollution incident data to assess and compare the performance of water and sewerage companies in England. Results indicated that there was significant variation in pollution incident numbers and the severity of the impact on the water environment for different asset types (operational property of the water and sewerage company such as a sewage treatment works).  Increasing numbers of pollution incidents from pumping stations and sewage treatment works, were largely responsible for overall increases in pollution incidents. The highest increase in pollution incidents in 2019, was observed from pumping stations. Variation was evident in company self-reporting percentages across asset types. There were significant positive relationships between the self-reporting percentages of pollution incidents and total numbers of reported pollution incidents per 10,000 km sewer length for pumping stations and sewage treatment works. These results indicate that in at least these asset types, an estimated 5% of pollution incidents could go unreported, if not self-reported by the company. Pollution events not reported quickly by companies, can lead to more severe impacts to the water environment so rapid and consistent reporting of incidents is crucial for limiting damage. The results have significance for the water industry internationally, because the issues presented here are not restricted to England. Whilst this research highlighted a number of key areas for more detailed analysis, in the short-term, research should focus on investigating best practice for reporting pollution incidents. It is important to get an accurate baseline of the number of pollution incidents and whether a proportion are currently going unreported. This research should seek to aid the standardisation of reporting practice across the water industry.

Avoiding the sapling and the elephant: A case study from Uganda of the impact of short-term teams on participants and host communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-394
Author(s):  
David Barr
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Team Characteristics ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Light

Short-term teams are a growing phenomenon that are gaining increasing attention, with some arguing such trips can create empowered citizens devoted to social justice. But there has also been increasing scrutiny on the impact of such trips on host communities, with questions arising over whether more harm is done than good. This research seeks to contribute to this debate by considering a case study of a short-term team from Ireland which traveled to Uganda, and examining the impact on the participants and host community. It is found that the team is viewed in a positive light by the host community, and with many criticisms of short-term teams not emerging as strongly as the literature suggests, it is postulated this is due to the team characteristics, which could serve as potential guidelines for best practice for other organizations sending short-term teams. Furthermore, recommendations are suggested so implementation can be improved further. However, it is suggested that the negative impacts of short-term teams are too potentially grievous to justify their unchecked proliferation, and that organizations should strongly reconsider sending teams unless they can ensure they are occurring within specific parameters such as those suggested within this research.

Extracting Benefits from Standardization of Digital Forensic Practices

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Cusack
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Related Services ◽  
Digital Forensic ◽  
Functional Attributes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Structured Planning ◽  
Economic Expediency ◽  
User Trust

Abstract Standardization offers consistencies for interoperability between jurisdictions and organizational entities. In some instances, accreditation and certification services are available to assure the reputational transfer of conformance and the compliance with best practice requirements. The impact of these benefits is a more predictable environment in which to deliver sensitive and high-risk services, leading to the reduction in failures and the enhancement of inter-party trust. In this article, the case of international standardization for digital forensic and related services is articulated as an example of structured planning for robust processes and practices that have user trust. Political and economic expediency has always reduced the implementation of standardization to functional attributes and short-term returns. The advocacy is for the long-term investment in standardization and the creation of trusted practices for predictable and robust scientific procedures in the transfer of operational knowledge and the preservation of digital evidences.

scholarly journals Effects of PM2.5 and PM10 on congenital hypothyroidism in Qingdao, China, 2014–2017: a quantitative analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 204201881989215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silin Pan ◽  
Wei Ni ◽  
Wenjie Li ◽  
Guoju Li ◽  
Quansheng Xing
Keyword(s):  
Congenital Hypothyroidism ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Relative Risks ◽  
Legal Limits ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Pm2.5 And Pm10 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pollution Events ◽  
Particulate Matter Pollution

Background: We aimed to quantify the impact of PM2.5 and PM10 pollution on congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in Qingdao in the period 2014–2017. Methods: A generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) with time-series Poisson regression was conducted to quantify the association between PM2.5 and PM10 variables in the month when cases of CH were born or in the two preceding the months (lag0, lag1 and lag2) and monthly morbidity of people with CH across different populations. Results: A total of 480,633 newborns were screened for CH during 2014–2017 in Qingdao, and there were 268 cases of CH diagnosed. The count of days per month for which average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 exceed legal limits were positively associated with monthly CH morbidity at lag1 month among all the populations, and the adjusted relative risks (RRs) with exposure per 10 μg/m3 were close among different populations. However, the number of days per month of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations exceeding limits were negatively associated with CH morbidity. Additionally, the RRs of CH increase with worsening air pollution. Conclusions: Concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 exceeding the legal limits are significantly associated with CH in Qingdao. Moreover, it suggests that sudden and short-term particulate matter pollution events with high levels of particulates exceeding the legal limits may be related to risk of CH.

A Newspaper’s Effect on the Strength of Automatic Associations in Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Term Effect ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Implicit Measure ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Short Term Treatment ◽  
Short Term Effect ◽  
Automatic Associations ◽  
Foreign Nationality ◽  
The Impact

A test was done to see if reading a newspaper which consistently overrepresents foreigners as criminals strengthens the automatic association between foreign country and criminal in memory (i.e., implicit cultivation). Further, an investigation was done to find out if reading articles from the same newspaper produces a short-term effect on the same measure and if (1) emotionalization of the newspaper texts, (2) emotional reactions of the reader (indicated by arousal), and (3) attributed text credibility moderate the short-term treatment effect. Eighty-five participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions. Participants in the control group received short factual crime texts, where the nationality of the offender was not mentioned. Participants in the factual treatment group received the same texts, but the foreign nationality was mentioned. Participants in the emotionalized treatment group received emotionalized articles (i.e., texts which are high in vividness and frequency) covering the same crimes, with the foreign nationality mentioned. Supporting empirical evidence for implicit cultivation and a short-term effect was found. However, only emotionalized articles produced a short-term effect on the strength of the automatic association, indicating that newspaper texts must have a minimum of stimulus intensity to overcome an effect threshold. There were no moderating effects of arousal or credibility pertaining to the impact on the implicit measure. However, credibility moderated the short-term effect on a first-order judgment (i.e., estimated frequency of foreigners of all criminals). This indicates that a newspaper’s effect on the strength of automatic associations is relatively independent from processes of propositional reasoning.

Diatoms in the Amur Bay sediments (Sea of Japan) and the impact of typhoons on their accumulation over the last 2000 years

2019 ◽  
pp. 252-256
Author(s):  
Irina A. Prushkovskaya ◽  
Ira B. Tsoy
Keyword(s):  
Sea Of Japan ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Catastrophic Events ◽  
Bromine Content ◽  
Amur Bay ◽  
The Impact

The study of diatoms in the sediments of the Amur Bay (Sea of Japan), formed over the last 2000 years, showed that the sharp short-term drops in the concentration of diatoms coincide with the minima of bromine content, which can be explained by the influence of typhoons or other catastrophic events leading to floods and used later in paleoreconstructions.

Impacts of Environmental Regulation on Sustainable Economic Growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 749-773
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Technical Change ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Porter Hypothesis ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

There is considerable concern and debate about the economic impacts of environmental regulations. Jonathan Fisher, former Economics Manager at the Environment Agency in England and Wales, reviews the available evidence on this subject. Section 2 presents estimates of the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. Section 3 examines the impacts of environmental regulations on economic growth, innovation and technical change as well as impacts on competitiveness and any movement of businesses to less pollution havens. He questions call for greater certainty regarding future environmental regulations, whereas in fact there should be calls for less uncertainty. This section then suggests how this could be achieved. This section then finishes with an overview of the available evidence. This includes an examination of the Porter Hypothesis that environmental regulations can trigger greater innovation that may partially or more than fully offset the compliance costs. Section 4 then sets out principles for how better environmental regulation can improve its impacts on sustainable economic growth and illustrates how the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is a good example of the application of these principles in practice. Section 5 reviews current and recent political perspectives regarding developments in environmental regulations across the EU and shows how the United Kingdom (UK) has successfully positively managed to influence such developments so that EU environmental regulations now incorporate many of these principles to improve their impacts on economic growth. Section 5.1 then examines the implications of Brexit for UK environmental regulations. Finally, Section 6 sets out some best practice principles to improve the impacts of environmental regulation on sustainable economic growth, innovation and technical change.

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