Technology to be verified within TESTNET project: 

            - Bio monitor for drinking water / surface water

The microLAN TOXcontrol Biomonitor for drinking water/surface water monitoring is a recently marketed product and represents the group of biomonitors capable of continuous monitoring of toxicity.

The application to be reviewed in this test will focus on intake protection for water works producing drinking water from surface water (rivers and lakes/reservoirs), thus defining the field test to be carried out at a measuring station for a river or a lake/reservoir (preferably at an intake to a water work).

It is well known that biomonitors can have serious problems regarding reproducibility of results due to growth patterns of the species used, shifts in limit of detection due to adaptation at the measuring location, etc. and therefore could be a challenge to the test protocols developed in ISO 15839, which are mainly focused on testing physical and chemical parameters.

This is confirmed by the Dutch and German expert groups on biomonitoring, who are working on a guidance document to add to the ISO 15839.