Environmental Monitoring &
Technology
Certificate 4 - Trainee Learner Resource
Environmental Fieldwork
Study Module 1
cffet.net/env
Environmental Fieldwork
Study Module 1
About this resource
This resource has been prepared by CFFET staff of Hunter TAFE for the delivery of the
MSS11 Sustainability Training Package, with specific reference to the units listed below.
There are many fieldwork related units in the MSS11 Training Package and this resource
combines several into a rounded subject that deals with water sampling aspects of fieldwork
(and fieldwork in general). As such, this resource can be considered as a ‘grounding’
document that lays down the base theory behind all fieldwork, including that which deals
with more advanced subjects and units in areas such as air pollution, noise monitoring and
soil related topics.
An appropriate way to use this resource would be to overlay the specific unit being studied
on top of this resource, or just use this resource as a generalised reference for the specific
units being studied.
Units this resource could apply to
The main unit that this resource applies to is;
◗ MSL974007A Undertake environmental field based monitoring
Other units that the theory in this resource could relate to include;
◗ MSL952001A Collect routine site samples
◗ MSS024006A Perform sampling & testing of water
◗ MSS024001A Work and communicate effectively as an environmental technician
◗ MSL943002A Participate in laboratory or field workplace safety
◗ MSS024012A Undertake simple environmental project activities
Refer to the Student Assessment Guide (SAG) for details of which units and their weightings
apply to this subject. Contact your teacher if you have not yet signed the SAG.
Delivery principles
The basic delivery principle behind this resources is that this will be used in conjunction with
the specific assessment tools being used for the individual units listed above. This resource
alone cannot be used to determine competency in any one of the listed units.
Practical work for this unit (for online students) is performed during the practical week.
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Assessment details
Purpose
This subject covers the ability to site and set up basic ‘ground level’ meteorological
equipment and collect and record reliable data. It also includes the ability to assess data
quality, interpret significant data features and use the data to ensure the validity of air and
noise monitoring measurements.
Instructions
◗ Read the theory section to understand the topic.
◗ Complete the Student Declaration below prior to starting.
◗ Attempt to answer the questions and perform any associated tasks.
◗ Email, phone, book appointment or otherwise ask your teacher for help if required.
◗ When completed, submit task by email using rules found on last page.
Student declaration
I have read, agree to comply with and declare that;
◗ I know how to get assistance from my assessor if needed…
☐
◗ I have read and understood the SAG for this subject/unit…
☐
◗ I know the due date for this assessment task…
☐
◗ I understand how to complete this assessment task…
☐
◗ I understand how this assessment task is weighted…
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◗ I declare that this work, when submitted, is my own…
☐
Details
Student name
Type your name here
Assessor
Marker’s use only
Class code
EF
Assessment name
SM1
Due Date
Total Marks Available
21
Marks Gained
Marker’s use only
Final Mark (%)
Marker’s use only
Marker’s Initials
Marker’s use only
Date Marked
Click here to enter a date.
Weighting
This assessment contributes 5% to the overall mark for this subject
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An introduction to fieldwork
Fieldwork is a basic skill required in many fields of science, including geotechnical, air
pollution, water assessments, meteorology measurements, noise and odour assessments,
contaminated site remediation and many more.
One of the stranger aspects of fieldwork is that it is sometimes deemed as a ‘lesser’ task,
even though fieldwork can be exceedingly complex and require a level of training far above
that of technician.
The need for fieldwork
Realistically, the topic of field work is probably the most important subject material for the
student in the whole course, considering that is ultimately what you are being trained for.
But why is it so important? Ultimately, the reasons are legal, and typically surround the key
principle of ‘environmental compliance monitoring’.
The field is growing as a result of ‘integrated management systems (which blend WHS and
environmental concerns together), and with changes in sustainability principles, practices
and legislation which require some monitoring of indoor and outdoor parameters. The point
is that fieldwork is an important skill in modern economies.
The POEO Act 1997
The key piece of legislation (in NSW) is the Protection of the Environment Operations Act
1997 and associated regulations. It is from this law (which you will learn about in another
unit) that environmental licences are issued and managed, so it is from this legislation that a
lot of fieldwork is generated.
The EP&A Act 1979
A major source of fieldwork is found before the development even begins – at the planning
stage (say for a new mine or industrial activity). The planning phase under the NSW
Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (or subsequent new legislation to be
introduced in 2014) allows for environmental impact assessments which can require
extensive ‘background monitoring’ of environments to obtain ‘background data’ from which
scientists can monitor the change (based on the comparison of future data when operations
commence).
Other reasons
There are many more reasons why environmental fieldwork is done. To start with, the
geotechnical world requires technicians to do field work for roads and general geoscience,
but some specific reasons include mining licence requirements under primary industry
departments within State Governments, or as a result of commonwealth legislation such as
the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conversation (EPBC) Act 1999.
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A special note on compliance monitoring
This course is titled “Environmental Monitoring & Technology”, but in my opinion it should
be called “Compliance Monitoring” because in essence, complying with some sort of
legislation or code of practice is all that any of this monitoring is performed for.
I make a special note about this because, at least in most cases, there will be a legal
consequence surrounding the work that is done. This will usually be in the form of paying
licence fees, load based limit fees, but can take the form of penalties such as fines which can
run into large amounts.
The environmental technician should always remember that a failure to comply may result
in an expense to both the client (as a cost) and the customer, your organisation (as a
damaged reputation).
Other units of study incorporated into this ‘subject’
The only other thing to remember is that this course consists of several units, and you
cannot view them as individual topics: once you learn something in one unit, you must
immediately become aware that it will inevitable be used in another unit.
All the skills and knowledge that you learn in individual units must be brought together in a
holistic fashion to form a ‘bigger picture’. Only then will you understand the job
requirements associate with being an environmental technician.
The science of fieldwork
Before we start in depth, you should be made aware of the sciences surrounding field work.
Obviously these will be discussed in depth throughout the manual, but there will be some
assumptions made about your knowledge, and it is in this section that we will give you a
‘heads up’ about the future content you may struggle with. What follows is a summary of
scientific concepts – you must speak to your facilitator if you require further explanation.
A note on scientific quantities and units of measure
Throughout this resource we will refer to quantities that you may not be familiar with, so
this section will just introduce the basics so you have some ability to comprehend the topics
on hand.
The metric system
In Australia (and throughout most of the world) a measurement system is used called the
Metric System. This means that measurement values will be based on decades (values and
multiples of 10, or fractions of it). The basic premise of magnitude is very important in
physical science as most of the time you will not have a negative value, but you can have
very small or very large values. Refer to other units that deal with calculations for further
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clarification on this topic
Units of measure
Metric units of measure include the seven ‘base units’. These ‘base units’ are combined with
each other to make ‘derived units’, which are the most common form of unit that you will
see (apart from simple ones such as the meter, m). You will be taught about the use of units
in other units, just remember to make use of that knowledge in every other subject you
study!
Concentration units
Proper concentration units are important in environmental reporting. Although chemists
prefer to use units such as percentage (% in m/v or v/v) or molarity (M) for chemical
concentrations, these units are too large for common environmental contaminants that
have low concentrations. Concentration units also vary with the types of environmental
media (air, liquid, or solid) as described below.
Chemicals in Liquid Samples
For chemicals in liquid samples (water, blood, or urine), the mass/volume (m/v) unit is the
most common. Depending on the numerical value, the concentration is expressed as mg/L,
mg/L, or ng/L.
Chemicals in Solid Samples
For chemicals in solid samples (soil, sediment, sludge, or biological tissue), the
concentration unit is mass/mass (m/m) rather than mass/volume. Units such as mg/L or
mg/L should not be used to express contaminant concentration in solid samples.
In reporting such mass/mass units in solid samples, it should specify whether the mass is on
a wet basis or on a dry basis. A dry basis is commonly adopted for comparison purposes
when such samples have a large variation in moisture contents. A subsample should always
be collected for the determination of the moisture content in addition to concentration
measurement.
Chemicals in Gaseous Samples
For chemicals in air, both sets of mass/volume (mg/m3, mg/m3, and ng/m3) and
volume/volume (ppmv, ppbv, pptv) are used, but they are not equivalent.
To convert between these two sets of units at standard temperature and pressure (25°C, 1
atm), the following formula can be used.
mg/m3 = ppm x MW/24.5
ppm = (mg/m3) x (24.5 / MW)
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Under other temperature and pressure conditions, the conversion factor (24.5) will be
slightly different. Report concentrations with the right unit and right significant figures.
In most cases you will be told explicitly which unit to report in, but if not, use common sense
in reporting when to choose mg/L, mg/L, ng/L; or mg/kg, mg/kg, ng/kg; or even % if the
concentration is high. The following points should help;
◗ Avoid very large or very small numbers.
◗ It is a good practice to use mass/volume (mg/L), mass/mass (mg/kg), and
mass/volume (mg/m3) for contaminants in water, soil, and air, respectively.
◗ Avoid using ppm, ppb, and ppt because they can be ambiguous.
◗ If chemicals in air are concerned, use ppmv, ppbv, and pptv to denote that the
chemical concentration in air is based on the volume ratio.
There are many other contaminant specific units, such as mg/m3 for atmospheric
particulate matter (PM2.5 or PM10) and lead (here ppm is an invalid unit because PM and
lead cannot be expressed in volume); mg/L as CaCO3 for water hardness, acidity, and
alkalinity; nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) for turbidity; mS/m for conductivity; and
pCi/L for radionuclides. The salinity unit is parts per thousands (ppt), which should not be
confused with parts per trillion (ppt).
Reporting results
As a general rule, when you take a reading, the last digit is a lie. This isn’t ‘true’ either, it’s
just that the truth is difficult to explain for now (you’ll learn it later), but as a rule, if a pH
meter reads 7.09, you should report it as 7.1, because we just don’t have the faith that the
meter is that precise. In our studies you will employ the following convention.
◗ pH
record to
1 d.p.
◗ Conductivity
record to
3 d.p.
◗ Temperature
record to
1 d.p.
◗ Turbidity
record to
1 d.p.
◗ Dissolved oxygen
record to
1 d.p.
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This only applied to our equipment – in your workplace you must follow enterprise
protocols.
Laboratory practices
You will spend a great deal of time and effort in other subjects and units learning the skills
and knowledge associated with laboratory practices. In short you need to be made aware of
the key concepts outlined below.
◗ Qualitative
◗ Quantitative
◗ Indicative
◗ Subjective
◗ Objective
◗ Representative
Chemistry and biology
The key chemistry topics that you will need to understand include;
◗ The periodic table
◗ Inorganic chemistry
◗ Organic chemistry
◗ Biochemistry
Physics
The only really physics based information you may need to know about for this subject at
this time is in relation to the concept of flow and flow rates.
The role of communication & customer service
As an environmental technician, you will be at the ‘frontline’ of client interaction and as
such you must have good communication and interpersonal skills. Clients and customers
include both internal (that is, inside your organisation such as managers or technical staff)
and external (that is, outside your organisation in the form of traditional customers and
clients).
Examples of internal customers include;
◗ your manager or project manager
◗ technical specialists
◗ logistics and,
◗ transport personnel, human resource or employee relations staff and management
and other staff and colleagues at your organisational level that you work with.
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External customers include everyone that you deal with and could include;
◗ Project management and staff at work sites
◗ Workplace Health & Safety management and staff
◗ Site technical specialists
◗ Equipment specialists and retailers
◗ Residents whose properties are affected by industrial projects
◗ Various other stakeholders who work on or with a site.
Generally speaking the customer skills that you should have include;
◗ Good written skills
◗ Computer proficiency
◗ Good verbal communications skills
◗ The ability to listen
◗ The ability to act upon instruction in a professional and timely manner
Communication, teams and leadership skills
Ask your teacher if you require help with any of the skills above as they are a basic skill set
that is deemed a Critical Aspect of Competence by the Training Package. CFFET has many
resources available for students on all of these aspects of customer service.
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An introduction to water!
Water is not just water! In fact there are different quality parameters attached to water
systems depending on how they are used. Water for human consumption for example
needs to be far more pure than that which we might find in a mine tailings dam. Because of
the many different types of water and water systems that are found in our environment,
chemists have broadly classified them into categories. The category in which a certain type
of water is placed influences how it is assessed for water quality, and how it is sampled for
quality assessment. Broadly speaking water may be classified as;
◗ ground water
◗ surface water
◗ waste water and
◗ drinking water
There are some cases where the categories overlap, for example in some areas ground
water is used for drinking.
Ground Water
Ground water occupies permeable subterranean layers. Its source is rain, which percolates
down through the permeable layers of soil until it reaches an impervious layer. The quality
of ground water is generally determined by the soil (and soluble substances in it) through
which it percolates, the rate of percolation, and the depth of confinement. Due to the
diverse nature of sub-soils and rocks, the quality of ground water varies considerably.
Figure 1.1 – Example of a groundwater environment showing sources and discharges.
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Pollution sources such as refuse dumps, mine seepage and chemical spillages can cause high
levels of contamination in ground waters.
Ground water finds applications mostly in agriculture, and as industrial cooling water, but is
occasionally used for human consumption. It is sometimes referred to as bore water as it is
often obtained by boring wells or spear-points into the underground aquifer.
Surface Water
This refers to fresh water on the earth’s surface, either flowing or still. It is probably the
most affected by normal types of pollution. Whilst most surface waters are capable of some
degree of self-purification, environmental pollution sources often exceed the capacity of
these systems - resulting in their contamination.
Figure 1.2 – Example of polluted surface water from a creek in the Hunter Valley
When judging the quality of this type of water it is important to consider the dynamic
properties of the waterway, as still water is far more affected by pollution than flowing
water. Processes such as eutrophication generally occur in dams and lakes, but are rare in
faster flowing rivers.
Drinking Water
This is water used for human consumption, and so it must be rigorously scrutinised for any
factors that might be deleterious to human health. The most important parameters to
monitor are biological contamination as many diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis
and many others are spread through drinking water. Additionally materials such as heavy
metals, pesticides and other chemicals must be continuously monitored.
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Normally drinking water is prepared from ground water or surface water by treatment
procedures. There are strict criteria set in place in this country to ensure the quality of
drinking water.
Figure 1.3 – Drinking water dam in the Hunter Valley
Waste Water
Any water which has had its composition changed by intensive human usage (such as
industrial applications) is referred to as wastewater. It varies enormously in components
and character and so this classification will fit the water in many systems.
Figure 1.4 – Typical wastewater treatment plant found worldwide
This is the source of the greatest amount of pollution in our aquatic systems, with most
being released as drain water from cities, industrial areas and agricultural zones.
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Assessment Task
After reading the theory above, answer the questions below. Note that;
◗ Marks are allocated to each question.
◗ Keep answers to short paragraphs only, no essays.
◗ Make sure you have access to the references (last page)
◗ If a question is not referenced, use the supplied notes for answers
Answer the following questions
a) Identify two pieces of legislation that ‘create’ work for environmental technicians. 2 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
b) What is meant by the term ‘compliance monitoring’? 2 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
c) Go to reference 1 and describe the metric SI system of units. 2 mk
Type you answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
d) State three (3) different expressions of concentration used in water. 3 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
e) Explain why we sometimes round the results of measurements from field probes. 2 mk
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Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
f) Describe the key differences between ground water and surface water. 4 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
g) Imagine you are an environmental field technician. Describe scenarios where you would
come into contact with both internal and external customers. 4 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
h) Generally speaking, how does drinking water become wastewater? 2 mk
Type your answer here
Leave blank for assessor feedback
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Assessment Submission
Answers
◗ Attempt all questions and tasks
◗ Type your answer into the text fields provided.
Submission
Use the documents ‘Save As…’ function to save the document to your computer using the
file name format of;
name-classcode-assessmentname
Note that class code and assessment code are on Page 1 of this document.
◗ email the document back to your teacher
Penalties
If this assessment task is received greater than seven (7) days after the due date (located on
the cover page), it may not be considered for marking without justification.
Results
Your submitted work will be returned to you within 3 weeks of submission by email fully
graded with feedback.
You have the right to appeal your results within 3 weeks of receipt of the marked work.
Problems?
If you are having study related or technical problems with this document, make sure you
contact your assessor at the earliest convenience to get the problem resolved. The name of
your assessor is located on Page 1, and the contact details can be found at;
www.cffet.net/env/contacts
References
Note that some of these resources might be available from your teacher or library
1. http://www.bipm.org/en/si/
Other resources
If they exist, the items listed below are for general information only. If you know of a good
resource that other students might find useful let your teacher know and we shall add it to
the list.
◗ Nil
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Where to get help
Contact your teacher if you run into any trouble this unit. You would be surprised how
flexible we are at accommodating your needs, but communication is the key. If you don’t let
us know you are having trouble, we may have trouble trying to help you.
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