Most businesses that discharge to public foul sewer have a trade effluent consent.
Your water and sewerage company or authority draws up your consent document on the basis of certain legal rules.
For some discharges you may have a trade effluent agreement, for example if your trade effluent discharges to the sewage treatment works via a private pipe. Your water and sewerage company or authority has more freedom in what conditions they include in agreements compared to trade effluent consents.
How to apply for a trade effluent consent
You will need to apply to your water and sewerage company or authority if you want to discharge trade effluent into their public foul sewer or to a private sewer that connects to a public foul sewer.
Individual companies will have different procedures, so you should contact them to discuss their procedure. It’s always worth ringing them as soon as you can, so you can discuss whether your discharge will be acceptable and how long it will take them to process your application.
If the discharge contains certain dangerous substances such as mercury or cadmium, then the water company may have to refer your application to your environmental regulator and the process will take longer.
How to make an appeal
You will not be able to discharge to the foul sewer until your consent has been granted.
If your water and sewerage company or authority refuses consent you can appeal against that decision.
You also have the right to appeal against the conditions in your consent.
How to comply with your trade effluent consent
You will have to comply with all the conditions of your trade effluent consent. The conditions normally relate to:
- where the discharge may be made
- the rate and maximum volume of the discharge
- the temperature of the discharge
- monitoring and reporting requirements
- how much you need to pay
- the composition of the discharge, including maximum concentrations of specific substances.
When do you need a new or revised trade effluent consent?
You will need to apply for a
new or revised trade effluent consent or agreement if:
- your discharge changes
- you are no longer able to comply with the conditions on your consent or agreement
- you discontinue the discharge (in Scotland for two years or more) and then want to start it again.
You should inform your water and sewerage company or authority immediately if your company changes its registered name, or is taken over by another company.
In this guideline:
