The challenges of managing wastewater in-house

Dealing with wastewater is a critical responsibility for businesses in the UK, both to comply with environmental regulations and maintain sustainable operations, and to avoid the reputational harm associated with failures. Businesses must generally follow a structured approach to manage and treat their wastewater effectively, but as we have noted, this can pose significant challenges. These depend on the types and volume of wastewater produced.

When designing and implementing wastewater treatment processes, a business must start with the following steps:

• Regular sampling of wastewater to determine its chemical, physical and biological characteristics.
• Identifying specific pollutants in the wastewater, such as heavy metals, organic matter, oils, greases and chemicals.
• Calculating the daily or weekly volume of wastewater generated to determine the required treatment capacity.

All of these requirements must be met in order to treat and manage wastewater successfully. Some businesses may also need to report this data to the Environment Agency or other authorities, and will have a legal obligation to ensure it is accurate in such cases.

While designing these policies, organisations should also consider the regulations that apply to their industry and to UK businesses more generally. These include:

• The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016: These laws mean that businesses need a permit if they discharge wastewater directly into surface waters, groundwater or into the sewer. The permits stipulate the allowable levels of various contaminants.
• The Water Industry Act 1991: This act represents the legal framework for wastewater discharge and describes the penalties for non-compliance.
• The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED): This legislation establishes a comprehensive framework to control emissions into air, water, and land from large industrial installations and large-scale businesses may need to understand and comply with its rules.

As well as these national laws, there are also local requirements, such as the need for trade effluent consents from local water companies. If a business discharges trade effluent (meaning wastewater from any industrial or commercial process) into a public sewer, it must have a trade effluent consent from the local water company responsible for managing the sewer. It must strictly adhere to the conditions outlined in its trade effluent consent, as non-compliance can result in enforcement actions, including fines or prosecution. This might include regularly monitoring the quality and quantity of effluent to ensure it remains within the permitted levels, and keeping detailed records of effluent monitoring for the water company to inspect when necessary. Businesses that have a private sewer or septic tank do not need these consents, but will have to manage their wastewater using a different approach.

Effective wastewater treatment usually follows three key stages. The steps needed to bring wastewater in line with legal minimum standards depend on the nature of the wastewater in each case, but the process usually includes:

Primary Treatment

• Screening: Removing large solids, debris and other coarse materials using screens, grit chambers and sedimentation tanks.
• Grit removal: Separation of sand, gravel and other heavy particles through grit channels or cyclone separators.
• Sedimentation: Allowing heavier solids to settle at the bottom of sedimentation tanks, forming sludge that can be removed and treated separately.
• Flotation: Using air to float lighter particles like oils and greases to the surface for removal.

Secondary Treatment

• Biological treatment: Employing microorganisms to break down organic matter in the wastewater.
• Activated sludge process: Aerating the wastewater to promote the growth of aerobic bacteria that consume organic pollutants.
• Trickling filters: Spraying wastewater over a bed of stones or plastic media where a biofilm of microorganisms degrades organic matter.
• Rotating biological contactors: Using rotating discs submerged in wastewater to grow biofilms that treat the water.
• Secondary clarification: Further sedimentation to remove biological solids generated during the biological treatment.

Tertiary Treatment

• Filtration: Removing fine particles using sand filters, membrane filters or other filtration methods.
• Disinfection: Killing pathogens using chlorine, ozone or ultraviolet light to safely discharge or reuse the wastwater.
• Nutrient removal: Targeted removal of nitrogen and phosphorus to prevent eutrophication in receiving waters. This can be achieved through chemical precipitation or biological nutrient removal processes.

After treatment, the wastewater may be released into local water bodies, such as rivers or the sea, following the conditions set in the environmental permit. The discharge must meet the quality standards specified in the permit to protect the environment. Alternatively, treated wastewater can be reused within the business for purposes such as cooling, irrigation or process water, to reduce overall freshwater consumption.

Many businesses are now looking to go beyond compliance by implementing sustainable practices, which can introduce further challenges. For example, adopting advanced treatment technologies can mean paying for new equipment and training for in-house staff, while water minimisation efforts (or extracting resources from wastewater) can demand the implementation of new processes. All of this can be expensive for a business to implement on its own.

How third-party wastewater specialists can help

Hiring a company to manage waste disposal on your behalf can offer several advantages. Companies that focus on a specific area, like waste management, have teams of experts who are highly skilled and experienced in that field. Their deep knowledge can lead to better results compared to handling these tasks internally. Specialised companies also stay current with industry trends, best practices, and regulatory changes. This ensures that your business benefits from the latest techniques and complies with all relevant laws. Given the complex nature of UK environment law as we have outlined it above, this ability to rely on a third party for compliance with water industry regulations and best practices can benefit organisations in all sectors.

Beyond this reliability, hiring a company can often be more cost-effective than employing full-time staff, especially for tasks that do not require constant attention. You avoid costs associated with salaries, benefits, training and equipment. The process of treating and disposing of wastewater has been outlined above, and may demand a wealth of expensive equipment to deliver effective results. A business with national reach can scale services up or down based on your needs, which will allow you to control costs more effectively without the burden of hiring or laying off employees.

Established companies like Universal Tankers have tried-and-tested processes that ensure high-quality service delivery. We have developed efficient workflows, quality control measures and performance metrics that can give you certainty that only clean water, fully treated according to the relevant regulations, will be released into the environment. When you hire us, we will provide a clear benchmark for performance and take on the responsibility for disposing of your wastewater on your behalf, which makes it easier for you to focus on delivering your services to customers.

Because of the flexibility in our approach, Universal Tankers can more easily adapt to changes in your business needs, market conditions or technological advancements than you might be able to with an in-house team. We can provide one-off, emergency or regularly scheduled maintenance for a septic tank or drainage system to keep things running smoothly, and we have depots based throughout England and Scotland to enable us to provide urgent help wherever you are based.