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Improving Sewage Treatment to solve the planning permission backlog
Effective management of the sewage from a care facility has always needed particular consideration due to a combination of factors such as on-site laundry, the number of residents and the type of waste associated particularly with high dependency residents, chemicals and compounds. Similar but different to hotels, these all come together and either form a well-established set of requirements for the local water authority to process or else in the situation that a site is off the mains drains, a private sewage treatment system or septic tank.
Recently additional legislation has arrived with us that affects both existing and planned developments. While the regulations have arrived with the best of intentions, local planners and specifiers are very much working their way through the consequences of this legislation and the multitude of points that need to be addressed. While it is the pressure of backed up planning applications for new housing developments making the headlines, extra care and nursing homes are very much affected, critical due to changing demographics.
Natural England’s implementation of nutrient (particularly phosphates and nitrates) neutrality regulations in 2022 make sound sense from a sustainability perspective but due to the early stages of this process, there is a considerable amount of disruption to planning permission approvals and delays to commercial projects. The practice of ensuring that developments or site upgrades do not increase the levels of phosphates and nitrates entering vulnerable watercourses and catchment areas is at the centre of this:
Any new development or significant change to an existing site must have a before and after assessment of its environmental impact and broadly speaking any negative environmental impact must be offset by implementing an equivalent positive one on site or nearby with agreement. “Biodiversity Net Gain”.
In March and July 2022, Natural England issued advice targeting areas with unfavourable conservation status due to nutrient pollution. The guidelines emphasize that planning applications affecting habitat sites should incorporate nutrient mitigation strategies to prevent further pollution and comply with the Conservation of Species and Habitats Regulations 2017.
Nutrient pollution is well known to lead to eutrophication, ‘algal blooms’, with massive impact on life in rivers and lakes. Local Planning Authorities across England have received advice on mitigating nutrient discharge for common commercial ventures and in conjunction with Natural England have developed a desktop spreadsheet model to assess feasibility so that there is no net additional nutrient load to the ecosystem.
For these sorts of developments, nutrient neutrality means ensuring that nutrient discharges are at or below the levels prior to development. To take a specific example, modern sewage treatment plants can treat down to 0.5mg/l of Total Phosphates and 10mg/l of Total Nitrates; due to the early stages of this regulation, industry experts are rapidly finding new paths through these issues, reviewing each site as a whole and introducing technologies needed by the 2030 deadline.
When considering off-grid private sewage treatment it is important to recognise that the wide range of modern packaged treatment plants available can vary quite considerably in their performance, not all tanks are alike. Alongside advanced sewage treatment, mitigation strategies for existing nutrient sources are essential to allow an overall site to remain neutral even once an additional development project has been factored in.
These can include onsite measures, like wastewater treatment plants, or offsite
measures, like reducing nutrients from other sources. Constructed wetlands, orchards, or land use changes are established viable options for mitigation and are already an established part of sustainable land management.
With the wide range of packaged systems and other mitigation methods available to help you through this part of your planning process, guidance from an independent waste system specialist has never been more valuable.
For more information please contact:
Michelle Marriott Waste Treatment Specialist MPC Services Ltd.
michellem@mpcservices.co.uk www.offmainsdrains.co.uk 01773 767612
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