Waste water processing - England

[Simon L]

Hi all

First post on here (and a dull one) but I've found this forum super useful over a past four years or so - thanks!

We've already planted 100 M25 trees of various traditional UK cider apple varieties. Whilst we wait for them to bear, we're planning our set up in a barn. It's not connected to mains drainage and our house, 50 or so metres away, shares a STP with a neighbour, who I'm sure shouldn't receive our cider waste water.  The barn is low-lying, bounded by a pasture field, a stream and our back garden. There's space to dig or space to store. There's water and power. I guess max production in the next few years is 10,000 litres. What are our (economical) waste water options?

Thanks for reading

Simon

[Wayne Bush]

I know there are a lot of new rules on waste water in the uk so probably should check with your local council on what is allowable, but with cider making you should not be generating vast amounts of waste water, nor putting anything toxic into the water.  Most of your waste water will be rinsing out your tanks after racking.  In your shoes I would look into putting in some soakaway crates.  if your barn is low lying it might be tricky to position it in a way that ensures some runoff, but you mention a stream so presumably there is some sloping ground somewhere on your property.  But again best to check with council on what the rules are.  

[Simon L]

Thanks for your reply, Wayne. In case it helps others in the UK, going down the council route led to Building Regs and the 'General Binding Rules' for 'small sewage discharge'. It seems anything from a sink or washing facility is classed as wastewater or sewage and cannot go to a simple (rubble pit or crate designed for rainwater) soakaway, rather to a compliant drainage field design or to a small sewage treatment plant. Exceptions only seem to be for tiny volumes by permit from the Environment Agency or for immediate use to water a garden. I'm thinking I might just have to collect the waste water in an IBC and pay to have it collected until I can think of a better plan.

[gareth chapman]

yes there is a de minimis straight to ground discharge allowance of something like less than 5 litres a day per appliance.