Development of a Real-Time Water Quality Buoy for the Fraser River Estuary

An innovative project has been initiated to monitor water quality of the Fraser River Estuary as a joint initiative between Environment Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment. Monitoring year-round, real-time, water quality and meteorological parameters in the Fraser River Estuary required a unique approach. Axys Technologies' experience in both the marine, meteorological, and water quality fields was critical to the development of this custom monitoring station. Station location and in-situ water sampling required a moored buoy platform. A Three Meter Oceanographic-Data-Acquisition- System (ODAS) buoy was selected. This platform is capable of surviving freshet conditions in the Fraser Estuary, and support the extensive sampling and monitoring equipment required for this project. The ODAS buoy was modified to include both standard meteorological and multi-parameter water quality sensors, as well as instrumentation needed to collect whole water samples and extract large volumes of water using Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) for the collection of Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) samples. Monitoring requirements include scheduled continuous and biweekly sampling, along with the ability to distinguish tidally driven events to initiate sampling for organic contaminates. Challenges include the maintenance requirements for each sensor to ensure optimised ongoing operation as well as the vulnerability of this buoy to both vessel traffic and floating debris. Future application development may include automatic data Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) and compatibility with a proposed national network.