Scientific services

What's offered through our scientific services?

Through our scientific services, we schedule and carry out a regulatory sampling programme for the water and sewerage services we provide to our customers. These services cover drinking water supplies, wastewater, recreational pools, environmental waters, legionella control, and process water.

Delivered from our laboratory – ISO 17025 (2017) by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) – our comprehensive analytical service for potable (drinking) water covers:

• microbiological including cryptosporidium
• general chemicals
• metals
• organic chemistry
• nutrients analysis.

What and who are our scientific services for?

We provide sampling and analytical services to:

• businesses with private water supplies, including caravan and camping sites, hotels, and bed and breakfast premises
• local authorities
• drinking water providers
• environmental consultants
• those requiring an analysis of a private water supply required by mortgage lenders as part of a Home Information Pack.

Our range of analyses enables businesses to show compliance with the following regulations and their subsequent updates:

• The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2016
• Microbiology of Drinking Water
• Private Water Supply Regulations 2016.

How to contact our scientific services team

How to submit a sample to us

For new submissions, please contact our laboratory team by emailing laboratory@wessexwater.co.uk.

To enable us to analyse samples within the stability time, please ensure samples arrive at the laboratory on the same day as sampling.

You should also follow the below sampling guidance:

• always provide correct sampling details, such as the time and date of sampling
• use correct containers for sampling and fill according to requirements
• ensure that samples are preserved at the time of sampling if a preservative is required.

All samples (except soils and Legionella) should be refrigerated after sampling. This will minimise the deviations you receive and ensure the validity of your results.

In submitting samples to the Wessex Water Scientific Laboratory, you are accepting the requirement to follow these guidelines.

What is a deviating sample?

If a sample is deviating, the validity of the results is in doubt. Samples will be assessed at the laboratory. This will include the container(s), its filling, preservation, the age of the sample and all the correct information supplied.

The UKAS guidance states that samples will be labelled as deviating if:

• no time or date of sampling has been supplied
• the sample is in the incorrect container
• the sample has not been correctly preserved
• the container has been incorrectly filled
• the sample age exceeds the stability time.

Samples that do not conform to these requirements will be highlighted as deviating on the reported analysis or, in extreme cases, cancelled.

Gross deviations will be cancelled, such as a bacteriological sample received in a non-sterile bottle.

The stability time is the maximum time period that the determinand remains stable under the recommended conditions without compromising its integrity. To request a listing, please email laboratory@wessexwater.co.uk.

Stability times have been established from detailed laboratory tests or recognised sources (principally ISO-5667-3).

How will a deviating sample be reported?

The reported analysis will indicate when a test is deviating.

The following are examples of what may appear on the analysis report:

• if no date or time is supplied: "unknown sample age, results may be affected"
• if a sample is received in an incorrect container: "incorrect container, results may be affected"
• if the stability time is exceeded at registration: "stability time exceeded, results may be affected"
• if a determinand exceeds its stability time at analysis: "stability time breached within laboratory, results may be affected".

All deviating tests are analysed with the understanding that they will be paid for within our normal terms and conditions.

Other water testing within our scientific services