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).