Dealing with Commercial or Industrial Wastewater: Things to Consider

Construction & Contractors Blog

Here are some of the things you should consider when designing a wastewater system for a commercial or industrial site.

The volume of wastewater

The first thing you should consider is the volume of wastewater the system will need to deal with at peak times. You should be able to use existing data to estimate the volume of water which will need to be processed. You also need to determine if there will be any significant variations in flow rate and what type of response time you need from the system when this occurs. Taking these things into account will ensure that the wastewater system has the capacity to deal with the wastewater produced on-site. You'll also need to consider what size the tank needs to be. Likewise, find out much wastewater needs to be held for a period of time before being treated and pumped out, as well as how much water is needed for flushing purposes.

Types of wastewater

You'll need to consider the type of wastewater you're dealing with when designing a wastewater system. For example, if it's highly chemical in nature, then you'll want to avoid blackwater tanks or leach fields made from porous materials like clay and sand (these are good choices for greywater). The main thing is not to make a mistake and use the wrong tank or field for greywater or blackwater.

Filtration

If you're dealing with a commercial or industrial wastewater facility, then filtration is a definite must. These facilities tend to have a high volume of wastewater coming in, so if you don't filter out any heavy metals or other chemicals that might be present in the wastewater, then your storage tank will corrode and break down under direct contact with these chemicals. This means that you'll have to pay for a new tank (or dig a new one). It may be appropriate to use an activated carbon filter to remove these impurities from your water before sending it to the storage tank.

The danger of cross-contamination

You should also think about the danger of cross-contamination when designing a wastewater system. It's very important to keep the two types of water (greywater and blackwater) completely separate. The reason for this is because both types are treated differently and require different kinds of wastewater treatment systems. Put more simply, if you put blackwater in with greywater, then your greywater will become contaminated and will no longer be able to be reused once it has been filtered.

For more info, contact wastewater design service.

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5 April 2021