Ipswich City Council

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Trade Waste Management

Ipswich Water provides sustainable Trade Waste services to ensure the health and wellbeing of our customers, community and waterways. We will not accept waste likely to:

endanger human health or life;
compromise the safety of personnel;
adversely effect the environment; or
adversely affect the operations of the sewerage system or wastewater centres;

Any such substances are prohibited from discharge to Council's sewerage service.

Ipswich Water has a long history of managing source water control through the application of our Trade Waste Environmental Management Plan (TWEMP) which regulates the introduction of contaminants to the sewage service from our commercial and industrial trade waste customers (i.e. through the prohibition of some contaminants and setting concentration and mass load limits for others).

This activity has become even more important now that treated wastewater forms the source water for the supply of high quality recycled water to our Springfield Water Recycling Centre (WRC) and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme.

Governance Arrangements

Our trade waste services are governed by several State Acts and Regulations, including:

Water Act 2000

Plumbing and Drainage Act 2002

Standard Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2003

Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995

Environmental Protection Act 1994

The requirements of these statutes are reflected in Council's Trade Waste Environmental Management Plan.

Your legal obligations

Discharging waste to Ipswich City Council's sewerage service without written approval is illegal and can result in penalties.

If your business generates trade waste and discharges it to our sewerage service, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have permission from the owner or an agent of the property and have a current Trade Waste Permit.

The permit system

Ipswich Water's Trade Waste permit process is compliant with Council's Trade Waste Environmental Management Plan. We operate a three-category permit system for trade waste generators, based on the volume and characteristics of trade waste discharged.

Category 1 Permits	Annual permit statements issued to customers discharging less than 500 kL / year with low strength trade waste (i.e. small shops, restaurants and small scale manufacturing industries).
Category 2 Permits	Annual permits issued to customers discharging more than 500 kL / year with low strength trade waste (i.e. larger shops, laundromats and moderate scale manufacturing industries).
Category 3 Permits	Three year legal agreements developed for larger industries with discharges of large volume or high strength.

Throughout the approval process, consideration is given to the following factors:

on site pre-treatment;
sewer admission limits;
amount, type and strength of trade waste produced;
potential damage to sewerage service;
potential to endanger health and safety of anyone working within the sewerage service;
capability of Wastewater Treatment Centres totreat the specific trade waste;
existing or potential re-use of waste water or biosolids;
ensuring flows in sewerage service;
compliance with the Trade Waste Environmental Management Plan; and
compliance with other legislation.

Discharge category specifications

All trade waste accepted to the sewerage service will be classified according to the following three categories for the purposes of trade waste permits and charging:

Parameter	Category 1 Permits	Category 2 Permits	Category 3 Permits
Biochemical Oxygen Demand, mg/L	< 300	< 300	> 300
Chemical Oxygen Demand, mg/L	< 600	< 600	> 600
Suspended solids, mg/L	< 300	< 300	> 300
Oil & Grease, mg/L	< 100	< 100	> 100
Sulphate, mg/L	< 500	< 500	> 500
Total Nitrogen	< 60	< 60	> 60
Total Phosphorous	< 15	< 15	> 15
Volume, kL/year	< 500	> 500	---
Trade Waste Approval	Permit	Permit	By Legal Agreement
Charges	Annual Fee	Annual Fee Quantity based charges	Annual Fee Quantity/Quality (on total annual load)

Acceptance of waste under any category is conditional on it meeting Council's Sewer Admission Limits unless otherwise specified in the trade waste approval.
It is the responsibility of the trade waste generator/owner or authorised agent to install, operate and maintain "best practice" pre-treatment devices or processes to ensure approved sewer admission limits are not exceeded.
In the event of a significant change in trade waste strength or volume under an approved Category 1 or Category 2 Permit, the waste will be treated as Category 3 for the purposes of charging and monitoring.

Last Updated 16 Oct 2007 |

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