For use at Golf Clubs, Industrial yards, amenity sites where vehicles,
mowers and such equipment are pressure washed.
Water Regulations in Europe 2003 and the implications.
Background
Groundwater regulations where introduced in the UK in
response to an EU Directive.
The Groundwater Regulations 1998, no 2746 were laid before
Parliament on 11.11.98 and came into force in stages, the first being on 2.12.98
and all others in either January or April 1999.
The regulations are in force now but have been slow
to take full effect because equipment etc. was not available for golf clubs
and others to use in their compliance with the new regulations. The new
legislation is being phased in under Pollution Prevention Guidelines with
specific guidelines targeting more than 20 activities to date.
Implications.
Two of the guidelines directly affect the washing
facilities with the result that most golf clubs and other sites are almost certainly breaking the
law.
We appreciate that regular cleaning of golf club equipment is
essential for equipment maintenance and performance and it often needs to be
de-greased. Wash-off water from golf club equipment will contain a range of contaminants including
oil, petrol, grease, pesticides etc.
Where golf club equipment is being cleaned by pressure washer or
where equipment, i.e. sprayer, is washed after applying chemicals the following
now apply: -
PPG 9 Prevention of Pollution Guidelines, using
pesticides.
PPG 13 Prevention of Pollution Guidelines using
pressure washers.
Content
The new guidelines require that golf club washing operations must now
be carried out in a designated, kerbed area that drains to a foul sewer. A
closed loop recycling wash off treatment system must be used.
Discharging or allowing wash waters to enter surface
drains, watercourses or soakaways is illegal.
A basic summary of the regulations is that they are
designed to prevent contamination of groundwater and materials specifically
covered include pesticides used in horticulture and agriculture. It places a
limit on pesticide contamination of 1 part pesticide to 10,000,000,000 parts
water. The Environment Agency state that just 250 grams of pesticide could
cause the entire water supply for London to exceed the limit.
Affected Materials
The regulations list specific materials, in parts 1 and 2,
and there is currently a working group trying to determine which substances fall
into group 1 and thus banned as well as those falling into group 2 which must be
controlled to prevent pollution. Oil, grease, petrol and diesel are
hydrocarbons and so come into group 1, i.e. where their presence must be
prevented completely. All pesticides are either organohalogens or CMT
(Carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic) and are also included in the dreaded
list 1.
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and biocides are in group 2 so
this includes many of our fertilisers.
Damages
There is a current proposal at the EU to make polluters pay
the full cost of any damage caused, so in theory if a club allowed 250g of a
chemical to spill and get into the ditches or rivers or even a soakaway there
could be a bill that covered the cost of cleaning up the entire London water
supply.
Practical Application
In practical terms this means that it is no longer
acceptable to wash off golf club grass cutting equipment or wash out golf club sprayers and not take
account of the wash-off materials and where they may end up. The law now
clearly states that such materials should either be discharged into a sanitary
sewer or contained and treated for safe disposal or recycled for reuse but it
may not be obvious to many golf clubs that the law includes fertilisers, pesticides
and even grass clippings because they are nutrient rich and contain about 5%
nitrogen, a list 2 substance.
Greenkeepers and golf clubs will have to know, or find out,
where their wash-off water goes when it leaves the golf course. It is illegal
to discharge anything but clean water down a surface water drain and you must
also get a licence to discharge wash-off water down a foul sewer drain.
Suitable treatment equipment.
Until recently there was little that could be done for the
treatment of
washing water to improve its quality but there are now a couple of golf club
treatment systems
available. Approved or suitable equipment would include a septic tank,
oil/water separator, evaporator or biological treatment plant.
A septic tank could be used, simply a chamber that retains
material for sufficient time to allow the solids to form into sludge after which
it is partially broken down. The remaining liquid is then drained into the
ground providing it does not contravene the regulations and provided the soil
type is suitable.
Oil water separators work well and you would simply skim
off the surface oil and dispose of it through you usual system for oil
disposal. This would not cope with pesticides.
Evaporators are exactly what they say they are, they
evaporate the water from chemicals and the resulting solid matter left in the
tank is then sent off to be disposed of through a registered waste trader.
Biological treatment systems generally have a screen that filters off
solid matter such as grass clippings, the material is then allowed to settle to
remove remaining solids, the liquid is then aerated and treated with bacteria to
digest organic materials and contaminants such as oil and pesticides. The
liquid then settles, sludge forms and clear liquid can be taken from the golf
club for re-use.
The biological treatment systems should recycle water used and the
set up should include a purpose made wash off pad with a collection tank that
feeds the digester.
Legal Action
The Environment Agency has been given the power to act and
can issue enforcement notices if they foresee a potential pollution problem.
Businesses and Golf Clubs that breach enforcement notices face fines of up to £20,000 and the
directors face prison sentences of up to 3 months. Even where a case is not
taken to court the culprit can still face the full bill for costs of any damage
caused as a result of the pollution.
Reproduced from a document by George R. Shiels©.
Independent Agronomist. Reproduced by his permission for Biotank Ltd.
Biotank solution:
Biotank Ltd. have produced a complete system to solve the
challenge of treating wash down water from Golf Clubs:
It consists of using our patented biological treatment
system in combination with a re-cycling pumping station and concrete wash down
tray.
How does it work?
Vehicles are driven onto the wash down tray and pressure
washed using water drawn from the “Recycled water tank”. The washings then pass
to the “Biotank Treatment System” where both anaerobic and aerobic digestion are
used to break down the oils, solvents and pesticides / herbicides by biological
action. Any non organic substances such as sand collect at the bottom of the
tank for later removal by suction tanker. (In exactly the same manner as a
septic tank is de-sludged). The biological action within the tank breaks down
the washings to produce nearly pure water which is re-cycled back to the holding
tank by a submersible pump in a pumping chamber. The pumping chamber has a high
level alarm in case of pump failure. The clean water passing back to the water
tank is then re-used at a later stage. An overflow pipe removes excess water
that is introduced by rainwater. (This water is clean enough to pass directly to
a watercourse, (with Environmental Agency consent) or soakaway.)
Water passing back to the storage tank is sterilized with
an Ultra Violet sterilizer to ensure that the water is pure. Legionella
sp. are common in soil and are effectively killed by UV treatment.
The system uses 58 different strains of bacteria
specifically chosen to breakdown the type of products found in washings from
vehicles / mowers / sprayers. A maintenance dose is added on a monthly basis to
ensure that the populations of bacteria are maintained at the optimum level.
Maintenance of the system is minimal due to the patented
design of the treatment system and use of established well know pumps and
aerators. (Pumps are designed to have a life expectancy of in excess of 5
years).
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