Consent from your water and sewerage company or authority
You must always get a trade effluent consent or enter into a trade effluent agreement with your water and sewerage company or authority before you discharge trade effluent to a public foul sewer or to a private sewer that connects to a public sewer.
You can find out who is your sewerage service provider on the Water UK website.
If you discharge trade effluent to a foul sewer without consent you will be committing an offence and may be prosecuted and fined.
You will need a trade effluent consent or agreement if you:
- allow the discharge of any trade effluent into a public foul sewer
- wash substances such as oils, solvents, chemicals, food, adhesives, inks or powders into a public foul sewer
- use a sink, basin, toilet or gully for disposing of any liquid wastes to a public foul sewer, apart from domestic sewage, or discharging wash waters.
If you discharge trade effluent to a foul sewer without consent you will be committing an offence and may be prosecuted and fined because unconsented discharges may:
- damage the sewers
- damage the sewage treatment works
- cause a health hazard for sewerage workers or the general public
- harm the environment.
If you already discharge any quantity of trade effluent to the foul sewer, no matter how small, and you do not have a trade effluent consent or trade effluent agreement, you may be committing an offence. Contact your water and sewerage company or authority immediately to discuss the best way forward.
Consent from your environmental regulator
You may also need authorisation from your environmental regulator to discharge some trade effluents to sewer. These include:
- effluents from installations that have an environmental permit (England and Wales) or a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland)
- effluents that contain dangerous substances, for example mercury or cadmium.
Your environmental regulator’s requirements may be different from the conditions on your trade effluent consent. You have to comply with the stricter requirements.
In England and Wales co-regulation of sites by the Environment Agency and the water company is explained in a memorandum of understanding.
