Posted by Luke Quentel, on July 10, 2024.
When it comes to sewage treatment plant discharge, the quality of water is better compared to septic tanks. However, there may still be some biological processes and microbes escaping, which can impact the environment. According to the general binding rules, the discharge should go into the ground or a flowing water course to prevent nutrient retention on the site. The allowed discharge volumes are up to 2 cubic meters per day for underground discharge and 5 cubic meters per day for watercourse discharge, based on population size. If the discharge exceeds these volumes, a permit is required. The permit allows different discharge options, including the possibility of discharging into a pond under specific conditions. To obtain a permit, individuals should contact the local Environment Agency, which will provide guidelines and requirements for the discharge, including the desired quality of effluent. It is important to adhere to the general binding rules, and any exceptions will require a permit for discharge. So, with discharges, very much from a treatment plant, which is by far better, the treatment’s performance, in terms of the quality of discharge, versus, certainly, septic. The quality of water, you are still going to have some biological process and microbes escaping for the fire water treatment plants, so that is something to very much be considered, because it will have an impact on the environment. And the general binding rules all pretty much states that you will still need to discharge the ground from a septic tank or into a flowing water course, so the nutrients are not retained on the sites. They are channeled away so there is less impact to the environment. Of course, that is very much subject to the amount of water being discharged as well. If you discharge under ground, you generally need, you can only discharge up to 2 cubic meters, and if you go into water course, it’s 5 cubic meters per day. So that’s generally based on, of course, the population size. So the more people you have, the more water you’re going to discharge. So that’s something very much for all people to consider. If you’re going to be going over those two volumes I just mentioned, in terms of the discharge, so that’s 2,000 for ground, 5,000 for a wastewater treatment plant going to a water course, you very much need to apply for a permit of discharge. And that’s permanent discharge will be in relation to the volume of discharge. Now, with the permit discharge, that will then open the scope up for the way you can discharge the water. So that could include discharge into a pond under very special circumstances. It does also mean other types of discharge, like holes and all that sort of stuff as well. So, very much try and stick with general binding rules where you can, anything outside of that, you’ll need a permit for discharge.And if they would want to get a permit, where would they need to go?The local environment Agency for the area will generally issue them a permit for discharge based on, of course, the restrictions they have in place, and then they will also tell you how good the quality of effluent will need to be. So that would dictate where you need to have a septic tank, a treatment plant, or maybe a treatment plant with additional features to try and bring that nutrient level and discharge down to a much better quality.