This area contains news and updates on trade waste matters and items of interest to our customers.

February 2012 - Revisions to Existing Guidelines and Fact Sheets

Revisions to Existing Guidelines – February 2012

Boilers	Added recommended minimum size for blowdown vessel/pit
Chemical Manufacturing	Major revision, including new requirement for batch discharge of trade waste containing chemicals from these sites.
Cooling Water Discharge	Amended chlorine limit, added flow rate and recirculated coolant clauses.
Food Preparation	Combined into Commercial Food Preparation & Service Industry Guideline
Food Waste Disposal Units	Combined into Commercial Food Preparation & Service Industry Guideline
Grease Arrestors	Combined into Commercial Food Preparation & Service Industry Guideline
Laboratory Chemical Disposal	Combined into new Laboratory and Clinical Chemicals Guideline
Medical/Dental Clinic	Combined into new Laboratory and Clinical Chemicals Guideline
Mobile Operators	Reworded to improve clarity. Added clause relating to audit inspections.
Pest Controllers	Deleted, as wastewater containing pesticides is not accepted to sewer.
Sealed Arrestors Venting	Combined into Commercial Food Preparation & Service Industry Guideline
Swimming Pools	Added new clauses relating to discharge rate/volume.
Veterinary Clinic	Combined into new Laboratory and Clinical Chemicals Guideline

New Guideline – February 2012

Laboratory and Clinical Chemicals

Absorbs old Guidelines · Laboratory Chemical Disposal · Medical/Dental Clinic · Veterinary Clinic

New Guidelines – To be Issued March 2012

Commercial Food Preparation and Service

Absorbs old Guidelines · Food Preparation · Food Waste Disposal Units · Grease Arrestors · Sealed arrestors Venting · Arrestors/Separators and their Function (Fact Sheet)

December 2011 - Fact Sheet - Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)
Effective January 2012

Liquid Hauled Waste
Now has its own page on our website, with all our information for liquid waste haulers and businesses generating non-domestic hauled waste.

October 2011 - Trade Waste General Policy
These requirements are effective immediately and will be applied to new and existing operations.

Please note the amended "Backflow Protection" section regarding backflow protection requirements at the property boundary. These amendments are consistent with the existing Backflow Requirements for Water Connections.

September 2011 - Fact Sheet - Electronic Monitoring and Data Collection

July 2011 - Fact Sheet - Glutaraldehyde and Ortho-Phthaladehyde (OPA) Disinfectant Disposal to Sewer

March 2011 - Pricing Review and Price Increase
SA Water issues permits (under the Sewerage Regulations 1996) for businesses to discharge trade waste direct to sewer. Permits for larger discharges over certain thresholds specify acceptance charges based on volume and contaminant loads.

Recently, SA Water completed a comprehensive review of charges and our approach for trade waste customers. The review recognised the impact of increased demand for recycled water from SA Water wastewater treatment plants and Environment Protection Authority license conditions for our plants (based on more stringent environmental demands from the Adelaide Coastal Water Study). We also considered the impacts of a future regulatory environment.

The review indicated our charges are substantially lower than those applied interstate and fall short of the true cost of treatment. As an outcome, on 7 March 2011 the SA Water Board approved changes to volume and load-based charges in the medium term, including:

• From 1 July 2011 volume and load-based charges for trade waste customer discharges exceeding any of the following annual thresholds: 10 tonnes Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), or 10 tonnes Suspended Solids, or 10ML trade waste volume.
•  New charges will be introduced for Total Kjehldahl Nitrogen (TKN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) in support of our obligations following the Adelaide Coastal Waters Study, and
•  A one year transition period to a new charging methodology for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). TDS is a measure of salinity, which in high amounts can interfere with plant growth and affect soil structure, thereby eroding the benefits of irrigating with recycled water.

The impact of these changes on individual trade waste customers will vary and depends on discharge volumes and pollution load. Our trade waste team will discuss the price increase and impact on individual businesses as well as cleaner production options.

The price increase will be consistent with National Water Initiative pricing and charging principles, which aim to apply a user pays principle and eliminate cross-subsidies between different customer groups. They are also designed to create an incentive for customers to stay below agreed limits and help avoid costly implications including compromising safety to the community and treatment plant staff, failure of the treatment process, environmental regulation breaches/environmental damage and subsequent litigation.

To find out more read the Frequently Asked Questions

For further information please call our Customer Service Centre on 1300 650 950 or email customerservice@sawater.com.au.

We hope these changes will encourage cleaner production processes and ultimately benefit the South Australian community through sustainable management of trade waste by SA Water and South Australian businesses.