Drainage solutions & maintenance
As a homeowner you are responsible for your waste water following a new legislation from the Environment Agency. It is your responsibility to minimise the impact of their sewage waste within the boundaries of your property.
If you think you maybe affected by this or want your drainage investigated, please contact Eco drainage.
01305 265585
07395 332036
[email protected]
As a homeowner you are responsible for your waste water following a new legislation from the Environment Agency. It is your responsibility to minimise the impact of their sewage waste within the boundaries of your property.
Under the Environment Agency legislationseptic tank regulations for both England and Wales will be law as of January 1, 2020. All septic tank types that discharge to surface water will require either upgrading or replacement with a sewage treatment plant. ThisEnvironment Agency legislationis a direct result to address the concerns that waste water is polluting watercourses.
If your system was installed and discharging prior to January 1, 2015 you have what is called an existing discharge. If it was installed and discharging after this date, you have a ‘new discharge’. In the past, you were able to discharge the effluent from a septic tank in two ways. Either to a soak away system or directly to a waterway.
ALL septic tanks that currently discharge into watercourses will have to be either:
Replaced using a sewage treatment plant with full BS EN 12566-3 Certification instead, or the discharge to the watercourse stopped and diverted to a drainage field, designed and constructed to the current British Standard BS6297 2007.
So all septic tanks that discharge into a watercourse or a ditch in England and Wales will need to be replaced by 1st January 2020.
If you are planning to sell your property before the deadline you must make sure that your tank system has been replaced before you move or have an agreement in place with the new buyers.
But there are different strategies available:
The new legislation takes issue with discharging septic tank waste into a watercourse, not the septic tank itself. So it is possible for you could keep your tank and discharge the waste into a drainage field instead.
If you choose to install a new drainage field, it must be a minimum of 10m from a watercourse, 50m from a water abstraction point, and 15m from a building.
But, if the new drainage field is going to be in or near a designated sensitive area, you will need to apply for a permit from Environment Agency
If installing a drainage field isn’t practical, you can opt to replace your septic tank with a small sewage treatment plant instead. Unlike a septic tank, a small sewage treatment plant produces non-polluting effluent, so the system can still be discharged into a watercourse, even under the new rules. They come with benefits such as low maintenance, low running costs and near silent operation.
If you think you maybe affected by this or want your drainage investigated, please contact Eco drainage.
http://https://www.gov.uk/guidance/general-binding-rules-small-sewage-discharge-to-the-ground
