The Environmental Survey Laboratory is responsible for the monitoring of radioactivity due to natural and artificially produced radionuclides in a variety of samples available around the nuclear facilities at Tarapur. Standard methods of radiochemical separation and counting are followed to determine -emitters in various matrices. To make the measurement simple and detect lower levels of contamination in some of the matrices, a method was developed to measure the high energy gross
-activity primarily due to 90Y in borehole water and urine samples of occupational workers by Cerenkov counting in a liquid scintillation analyser. Cerenkov counting results of borehole samples were compared with the total gross
-activity measured by a low background beta-counter. The combined measurements were used to evaluate 90Sr and 137Cs levels without chemical separation or gamma-spectrometry. Cerenkov counting technique was also utilised to evaluate 40K in drinking water and intercomparison water samples. The paper presents the methodology and results of a few measurements using the technique.