Pre-Treatment Fixtures
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| Maintaining Your Pre-Treatment Fixture | |
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We encourage the use of pre-treatment fixtures to improve the availability and usefulness of our sewer and municipal wastewater treatment systems for the safe disposal of Industrial Wastes. Pre-treatment can reduce the amounts of problematic contaminants entering the system, or eliminate them entirely.
If you’re about to install a pre-treatment fixture, you’ll need to make sure its safe and effective for use with the sewer system. Your plumber will know which of the available products on the market have been approved for connection to the sewer system in WA. Or you can use one of the typical designs for certain basic fixtures that are constructed on site.
Once you’ve installed your pre-treatment fixture, you will need to operate and maintain it, just as you would with any other piece of equipment in your business. Proper maintenance is vital to ensure your fixture continues to work effectively. By properly maintaining your equipment, you’ll be meeting your obligations under the service, and looking after the community and the environment.
For more information, click on one of the topics below, or scroll down to read them all.
Our Philosophy - Expanding Your Options
Our philosophy is to make our Industrial Waste service as widely available as possible, to provide an additional waste management option for businesses wherever we can, whilst administering proper controls to ensure any risks to the environment, our public assets, or public health and safety are avoided.
Our approach to managing these risks - while still maximising the availability of the service - often involves the requirement for suitable Pre-Treatment fixtures. By adopting this approach, we are actively encouraging the optimal balance between small scale Pre-Treatment at the source of wastewater discharges, and large scale treatment at our centralised treatment plants.
Our ultimate objective is to encourage the most environmentally effective and economically efficient overall approach to waste treatment and disposal for our community as a whole.
What Does Pre-Treatment Do?
For wastes that are only partially compatible with our systems, we encourage pre-treatment and waste minimisation at source to improve the suitability of the wastewater before it is discharged to sewer.
For many types of contaminants, pre-treatment of small volumes at the source location is typically more cost effective than trying to remove the contaminants from millions and millions of litres of wastewater after it has been diluted in the system. In other cases (such as grease & oils from commercial kitchens) wastewater contaminants might be compatible with our treatment plant biological processes, but cause problems in the network of sewers and pumping stations in between the source of the discharge and our treatment plants.
Pre-treatment can reduce the amounts of such contaminants entering the system, or eliminate them entirely.
Approved Pre-Treatment Fixtures & Additives
When selecting or installing a pre-treatment fixture at your location, you should first confirm that the device has been approved by the Water Corporation for use with sewer connection. Your plumber, consultant or equipment provider will be able to provide evidence for this - typically in the form of a certificate issued by us to the equipment supplier, or a marking on the equipment to indicate such.
If you are unsure about the status of a particular additive or piece of equipment, or would like further advice, please contact us. Depending on the nature of your query, you may be directed either to the Water Corporation’s Plumbing Testing Laboratory, or one of our Industrial Waste Officers.
If you are a proposing to use a piece of pre-treatment equipment or additive that has not yet been approved, then testing and/or trialing can be arranged.
New Pre-Treatment Product Approval
All plumbing devices and fixtures attached to the sewer system must be tested and approved by us to confirm that they are fit for the purpose for which they are designed, and to ensure that they will not interfere with the integrity or proper operation of the public wastewater system. This requirement is enshrined in water industry By-Laws, and is a legal requirement designed to protect public health from any increased potential for failures of the public wastewater system.
If you are proposing to install a non-approved fixture, or proposing to use non-approved biological additives, then your application for the Industrial Waste service cannot be approved, and a Permit cannot be issued, until such time as the fixture or additive has been tested and approved by us.
But testing or trialing of your proposed pre-treatment product can be arranged. This is necessary to protect our wastewater system, but beyond that, we do not want to restrict innovation or choice in waste management practices, or stifle the development of improved waste management techniques.
If you are considering a new or not yet approved biological additive, then the following information brochure may be of interest…
In contrast, the process for testing of new pre-treatment equipment or fixtures can vary quite significantly, depending on the type and purpose of that equipment. Consequently, the evaluation programs can be highly individualised, and we aren’t able to summarise them into a fact sheet or brochure.
If you are considering a new or not yet approved fixture or piece of pre-treatment equipment, then you will need to speak to one of our Industrial Waste Officers. Please contact us for further advice.
Downloads
Decommissioning a Pre-Treatment Fixture
If you are relocating to a new site, closing, removing your waste generating processes, or choosing an alternative waste disposal method not involving sewer discharge, then you will need to cancel your Industrial Waste Permit, and decommission your pre-treatment fixture.
Decommissioning may involve removing the fixture, or re-routing your sewer lines to by-pass the fixture. You will need to arrange a licensed plumber to carry out this work.
What action is appropriate depends upon the type of equipment, its portability, and whether or not it could be a hazard without water flowing through it. And of course, there are other considerations relating to your own situation and preferences, such as whether you need the space for something else, or if you can see a time when you may want to use the fixture again. You should check with your plumber, or equipment supplier, for any special requirements associated with your particular fixture.
Once you have decommissioned your fixture, you will need to cancel your Industrial Waste Permit. This does not happen automatically – your license to discharge Industrial Waste still exists, regardless of whether you exercise your rights to use the service or not. And for as long as you remain licensed, you will still be charged the Annual Permit Fee, which covers our costs of administering the license system.
To cancel your Permit, you simply need to write to us requesting us to do so. Our Industrial Waste Officers need to satisfy themselves that your fixture has been properly decommissioned, and that there are no other sources of industrial wastewater coming from your premises. They may need to contact you, or carry out an inspection of your premises as part of this process. You may incur an Inspection Fee if this is required. Once satisfied, they will cancel your Permit, and write to you to advise that this has been done. You will be entitled to a pro-rata refund of your current year’s Annual Permit Fee, calculated from the date of cancellation of your Permit.
If you are relocating to a new site, you will still need to cancel your Permit. Discharging into a different part of the sewerage system can have different impacts on the system, and different operational impacts for the Water Corporation, so your Permit is site specific. You will also need to complete a new application to get a Permit issued for your new location.
To find out more, talk to your plumber, or contact us