What category of service applies to you?

The Industrial Waste Service is essentially the same for all types of customers. Although many of our services are tailored to particular industry groups or individual situations to some degree, they remain fairly similar, and the same information usually applies.

However, for customers with particularly high strength or high volume wastewater, we must apply individual sampling and monitoring programs to properly manage the particular health and environmental risks associated with their discharge. These programs involve a fairly significant change from the operational arrangements in place for most small to medium businesses, and consequently, a different body of information will be required to explain the service arrangements for our more complex customers.

In Short

Our Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers   information stream is for our more complex customers with especially high strength or high volume wastewater, or those who are required to undertake a regular wastewater sampling and monitoring program as a condition of their approval to discharge to sewer.

If you are required by us to undertake:

  • Regular sampling of your wastewater on-site, and laboratory analysis of these results, (either by us, or your own staff), with results reported to the Water Corporation

            OR

  • A dedicated flow meter on your wastewater discharge line, with regular meter readings by us, or by your own staff with readings forwarded to the Water Corporation

        then you should select the information pages for Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers

All other customers should choose the Commercial & Light Industrial Customers information stream. The majority of our customers are serviced through the processes described on the Commercial & Light Industrial Customers pages.

Quick Risk Assessment

If you are not yet a customer, and are simply making enquiries about the service, then the above guidelines won’t be much help!

We carry out a risk assessment on every application for service that we receive, and then determine if sampling and monitoring programs are required in order to manage that risk.

You can anticipate the likely monitoring and sampling requirements we will have by considering the nature of your wastewater, and the potential risk it might present to the environment, the sewer infrastructure, or public health as it flows through our system.

Our risk assessment is quite complex and detailed, but the key factors are summarised here as a guide:

Volume:

If your volume of wastewater discharged to sewer is above 4,000 L/day, then you will most likely be included in a wastewater metering, sampling and monitoring program. You should choose the Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers  information stream. 

If your volume of wastewater discharge is below 1,000 L/day, then a montoring and sampling program is unlikely to be justified. You should choose the Commercial & Light Industrial Customers  information stream. 

For discharge volumes between 1,000-4,000 L/day, inclusion in a monitoring and sampling program will be determined by other factors.

Activity:

What you are doing within your business will be the key driver of your wastewater strength and the likely contaminants within it, the consistency of wastewater quality, and how much control you have over it.

If your business activity involves:

  • chemical formulations or manufacture,
  • resins & polymer manufacture,
  • drum or tank washing,
  • large laboratories
  • minerals processing
  • metal finishing or metal refining
  • anodising, or
  • wastewater treatment

and provided your wastewater volume is non-trivial, then you will most likely be included in a wastewater metering, sampling and monitoring program.

You should choose the Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers information stream.

Substances:

Dangerous or highly toxic substances in wastewater require closer management, and generators of these wastes are more likely to be included in our sampling and monitoring programs. If you are discharging non-trivial quantities of flammable or explosive substances, compounds highly poisonous to humans, or heavy metals, then you should choose the Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers information stream.

Note: We cannot accept all types of waste into the sewer system. Some substances are prohibited, while others are subject to strict limits. These limits are necessary to protect the sewer system, our workers’ safety, community health, and the environment. See the ‘Acceptance Criteria’ topic within your relevant customer information stream for more detail.

 Summary…

 If your business:

  • is likely to discharge less than 4,000L of wastewater per day,
  • is not undertaking any of the activities listed above, AND
  • will not contain highly toxic or flammable substances

Then you should go to our Commercial & Light Industrial Customers  pages.

If your business is likely to discharge less than 1,000L of wastewater per day, then you should go to our Commercial & Light Industrial Customers  pages regardless of business activity or the type of substances in your wastewater.

Customers likely to require wastewater sampling and monitoring should refer to our Large Manufacturing & Process Industry Customers  information pages.

Note: Our full risk assessment also considers other factors, such as the complexity and sensitivity of any on-site pre-treatment processes that you have, and any particular criticalities of the Water Corporation wastewater treatment plant which will be receiving your waste. However, for the purposes of guiding you to the appropriate information stream for the Industrial Waste service as it applies to your business, the factors of ‘volume’, ‘activity’ and ‘substances’ have greater significance.

Still Unsure?

You may wish to assume for now that you will not require a monitoring program (usually a pretty safe bet!), and then apply for the service when you are ready. Our Industrial Waste Officers will then individually assess your application, and they will advise you if any sampling and monitoring programs are required.

If you want to take this ‘law of averages’ approach, choose our Commercial & Light Industrial Customers pages.

Alternatively, please feel free to Contact Us.