Event News - BEST, Interbuild Onsite, Glassex and The Infrastructure Show

WPL’s Diamond Sewage Treatment plant – EA Registration

With the recent new legislation introduced by the Government the importance of buying a fully compliant plant and being properly registered with the Environment Agency (EA) has never been more significant.

The Environmental Permitting Programme Phase Two (EPP2) has highlighted how important it is to have a sewage treatment plant that is certified and fully type tested under EN12566-3 and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s maintenance instructions. The WPL Diamond is fully compliant, and offers customers complete peace of mind. By choosing a plant from WPL (available through builders’ merchants) self-builders, developers, specifiers and homeowners are assured that their wastewater treatment solution meets all current regulations.

Furthermore, WPL has an experienced, national Service Team offering onsite maintenance contracts for all of its own products as well as other makes of sewage treatment plant. The service team comprises of engineers who have all been awarded the ‘Qualified Service Engineer’ accreditation under the British Water scheme, in co-operation with the EA, for maintaining small sewage treatment plants up to 50pe. The WPL service team offers a standard maintenance package, or can offer bespoke plans tailored to meet specific individual needs.

Since compliance with EN 12566-3 became mandatory in July 2008 for small wastewater treatment systems (up to 50 persons), some manufacturers’ plants are still not fully tested and accredited with the CE mark and customers are encouraged to check before buying. Companies that manufacture plants that are CE marked, such as the WPL Diamond, will be able to provide copies of their official certificates to confirm this accreditation and compliance with the EN 12566-3.

Products with the CE Mark reassure the purchaser that the product meets the essential requirements of relevant European Directives relating to health and safety. But what does CE accreditation mean for wastewater treatment systems? Independent tests are undertaken to assess the system’s sewage treatment efficiency and ensure it meets the required process performance standard.
The Diamond is also fully compliant with UK Building Regulations and standard Environment Agency and SEPA specifications therefore keeping it in line with the new legislation recently introduced.

As well as highlighting the requirements for a sewage treatment plant that adheres to certification needs, the new Government legislation reiterates the need for all sewage treatment plants to be registered with the EA under Schedule 2 and 3 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations. All plants need to be registered with the EA as they may require an environmental permit, or they will need to register for an exemption from this permit if they meet certain requirements. If the sewage treatment plant is discharging treated sewage effluent, to a river, stream, estuary or the sea and the volume is 5 cubic metres per day or less, which will usually be a property with 11 residents or less, it is likely to be eligible for an exemption rather than a requiring a permit.

If the sewage treatment plant is eligible it will need to be registered as exempt from the need to have a permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. There are certain conditions associated with registering for this exemption concerning the design, installation and maintenance of the sewage treatment plant. It is the occupier’s responsibility to register the sewage treatment plant with EA and ensure that it is maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications.