Continuous private water supply monitoring
SourceSentinel watches a private water supply continuously, so a contamination event is seen in hours, not at the next scheduled visit.
Measures: five supply quality parameters Readings: every 30 minutes Built by: Quantum Risk Solutions
The gap in the current regime
Under the Private Water Supplies Regulations 2016, most supplies are tested once or twice a year by the local authority, with results from an accredited laboratory returned days later. Cryptosporidium, E. coli and nitrate from agricultural sources can all rise sharply after rainfall. A supply contaminated on day two of a 365 day cycle can be consumed for a year before anyone knows.
What is at stake
A contaminated private supply is not an abstract statistic. In one documented outbreak, 43 people fell ill with cryptosporidium and campylobacter after drinking from a private, untreated supply. Investigators traced it to three lamb carcasses in the supply's collection chamber and slurry washing in from nearby fields. Recipients of private supplies have faced waterborne outbreaks at rates estimated to be up to 35 times those on the public mains, and the people who carry that risk usually cannot see it coming.
Sources: Epidemiology and Infection, 1996 (Cambridge University Press); UK Health Security Agency outbreak review, England and Wales, 1992 to 2003.
What it measures
SourceSentinel measures indicators that change when supply quality changes. These are recognised surrogates for risk. They flag when something needs a closer look, and when an accredited sample should be brought forward.
The primary surrogate for microbiological contamination under drinking water standards. A sharp rise often follows rainfall driven ingress.
Detects mineralisation changes and possible ingress, including saline intrusion, that shift the character of the water.
A core wholesomeness parameter. Movement outside the expected band can signal a change at source or in the ground.
Context for the other readings and a factor in microbiological risk. Recorded alongside every measurement.
An indicator of dissolved organic matter, the precursor for disinfection by-product formation in chlorinated supplies.
Continuous data does not replace the lab result. It removes the year long blind spot around it.
The system
More than a sensor. SourceSentinel is a monitoring system. It measures, checks every reading against the limits that matter, raises the alarm when something is wrong, and turns a year of data into a report the local authority can read.
Records turbidity, conductivity, pH and temperature every thirty minutes, day and night, from a single point on the supply.
Every reading is checked against the relevant parametric limits. A breach sends an immediate alert to the people who need to know.
A secure dashboard shows current readings and full history, so a supply's behaviour over weeks and seasons is visible at a glance.
Produces a quarterly summary formatted for submission to the Drinking Water Inspectorate, without manual collation.
Sends data over cellular and buffers locally where signal is poor, so a rural borehole is not a blind spot.
Data is held in the United Kingdom under UK GDPR, with security practices drawn from Quantum Risk Solutions' cybersecurity work.
Two views of the same supply
SourceSentinel is built first for the people who depend on the supply. With their agreement, the same data can give the local authority a window onto the supplies it oversees.
Most owners have no idea what their water is doing between annual tests. SourceSentinel gives holiday lets, campsites, care homes, schools and farms a continuous, plain-language picture of their supply, early warning the moment something changes, and a record that shows they are on top of it, so they can act before a problem ever reaches a guest, resident or customer.
No authority can visit thousands of supplies more than once or twice a year. With owner consent, SourceSentinel turns a set of annual snapshots into ongoing oversight, giving environmental health teams a live view across participating supplies and pointing scarce sampling effort at those that most need it, at little or no cost to the authority.
How it works
Where it fits, plainly stated
We are precise about this, because the regulatory boundary matters. The accredited laboratory sample remains the compliance measurement. SourceSentinel makes the programme around it more responsive and better targeted.
Built by Quantum Risk Solutions
A safety product is only as good as the people behind it. Three of Quantum Risk Solutions' strengths sit at the core of SourceSentinel: cybersecurity, so your supply data is held safely and privately; calibrated sensing, so the readings can be trusted; and a working knowledge of water regulation, so the output is something a local authority will accept. It is designed, built and supported in the United Kingdom, by a team with a background in regulated, high assurance work.
Who it is for
If your property, business or community draws water from a borehole, spring or rainwater system, SourceSentinel gives you a continuous picture of its quality, and the evidence to show it is being looked after.
If SourceSentinel fits a supply you are responsible for, or a programme you run, we would like to hear from you.
info@quantumrisksolutions.co.uk