The Water Industry Act 1991 defines any wastewater produced in the course of a trade or industry carried out at a trade premises as “trade effluent”. This definition does not include domestic sewage such as wastewaters from toilets or hand washing undertaken at those premises. Trade Effluent will include any wastewater derived from a production process or from washing or cooling activities. Premises producing trade effluent vary in size from small launderettes to large chemical manufacturing facilities.
Why trade effluent needs to be controlled
Any wastewater discharge, including trade effluent, entering the public sewerage system is carried to the local treatment works so that it can be effectively treated and then returned safely to the environment. The purpose of trade effluent control is to ensure that these discharges do not adversely affect the treatment process, including the sewers through which the trade effluent passes. Another key objective is that public health is protected, including those people working in our sewers.
Anglian Water needs to know if a customer is discharging anything more than domestic waste. If you wish to discharge trade effluent into any drain connected to a public sewer, you are required by law to obtain a trade effluent consent from the sewerage undertaker responsible for the upkeep of the public sewer. Anglian Water is the sewerage undertaker in the east of England.
The discharge of trade effluent without such a consent is an offence and you may be subject to legal action if you do so. Trade effluent must not be discharged to a surface water drain, as it will then discharge directly to the environment without treatment. If you are in doubt about the distinction between surface water, trade effluent and the need to protect surface water, please contact us for guidance.
Anglian Water's role
Our responsibility is to provide industry with a service for the disposal of wastewater whilst ensuring that it does not adversely affect our infrastructure, treatment processes or the environment into which it is ultimately discharged. Anglian Water gathers information about the quality and quantity of trade effluent discharged to its sewers so that fair and proportionate charges can be calculated. We are also required by law to provide information for a public register of consents, and supply information to our regulators Ofwat and the Environment Agency.
How to apply for a consent
If you think your business requires a trade effluent consent, you will need to complete an application form called a Trade Effluent Notice. Once we have received an application, we will make every effort to provide a consent in a timely manner, however in some circumstances it may not be possible to meet your requirements. We will inform you within two months if your application is successful.
If your application is unsuccessful we will provide reasons why it has been refused. If we refuse to give consent, or you feel the conditions of the consent are too stringent, or where Anglian Water has taken over 2 months to respond, you have a right of appeal to our regulator Ofwat.
Although Anglian Water is primarily responsible for controlling trade effluent discharged to its sewers, there are occasions where the Environment Agency may apply additional conditions to your consent because of the types of material contained in the discharge or the processes giving rise to the discharge. To find out if you need a trade effluent consent please contact us.
There are some circumstances where trade effluent legislation does not currently apply; for example restaurants, some hospitals, colleges and schools. In these instances, contact Anglian Water Business who can provide you with guidance to ensure that your discharge does not adversely affect our operations or the wider environment.
What the consent allows you to do
The trade effluent consent is specific to each customer, their premises and the process from which the trade effluent is discharged. It will contain limits for:
- The maximum volume and flow rate of the discharge
- The temperature, pH and other chemical parameters of the discharge
- The maximum and minimum pH values of the discharge
Additional controls may be imposed to control or exclude any persistent or harmful substance in the discharge. All the conditions and limits stated in our consent are legally binding. Failure to comply with these can result in prosecution. If you wish to change your consent or no longer need it you must contact your local Catchment Quality Scientist. If you do not know who that is contact Anglian Water Business.
Trade effluent charges
A fee will be charged for new applications which will depend on the size and nature of your discharge.
After issuing a consent, charges are payable on a periodic basis for receiving and treating the trade effluent. These treatment charges relate to the volume of trade effluent discharged and the average treatable strength of that effluent, in line with the Ofwat-approved Mogden formula, which is used throughout the industry.
There are a number of tariff options available to trade effluent customers and these can be found in our charges section.
Monitoring and sampling
From time to time our Catchment Quality Team will visit your premises and may sample your trade effluent discharge, either to ascertain compliance with our consent and/or to evaluate the average treatable strength. Some types of trade effluent discharge are comparatively innocuous and may not be sampled on a frequent basis. In such cases, either an agreed treatable strength or a regional standard strength may be used for calculating the charges.
Other contacts
Our regulators may be contacted at the following: