Waste water down the sewer drain

I know waste water is not supposed to go down a "storm drain" but what about a sewer drain?

I think that's even worse. Around here, you're not even allowed to let rain water go down the sewer drain.

Where you from?

MR DJ

For Pressure Washer BMP's for the Sacramento
area follow this link:

http://washandcapture.com/services.html
also : http://www.sactostormwater.org/default.asp

Im in Sacramento, CA

Thanks for the links Mark... I've been meaning to come down to the store but am still debating if I have enough resources to get this business started. A trailer mounted hot water unit AND a recovery system is going to be expensive. Thanks for your help in my research.

DPProWash said:

I think that's even worse. Around here, you're not even allowed to let rain water go down the sewer drain.

Where you from?

Click to expand...

In CA the word "storm drain" is the most common for any outside drain that leads to an ocean, lake and such. "Sewer" is the most common for a drain that is inside and go to the treatment plant, In many areas of CA, it is legal to discharge to the "Sewer" if you follow their guidelines.

5150,
Nice name there. Call me if you like. I may have some tips to help you get started with recovery that works, but does not break the bank. You can upgrade to something bigger down the road.
If you talked to Mark, then he may have already mentioned these ideas, but maybe not.

Hello Mr Allan,

When would be a good time to call. I would really appreciate the tips on getting started with wastewater recovery and then upgrade down the line. Mark has been a great help but I havent gotten a chance to visit him at the store yet to talk about ww-recovery.

Thanks

I am usually around most of the day and early evening. Try to get to sleep by 7PM though.

mrdj5150 said:

I know waste water is not supposed to go down a "storm drain" but what about a sewer drain?

Click to expand...

Here's a partial quote from one of the Sacramento BMP sites Mark mentioned:
http://www.sactostormwater.org/industry.asp
"Pressure washing is an excellent way of removing pollutants from outdoor surfaces. Pressure washing wastewater should never be discharged to a storm drain, however! Storm drains should be covered, or the path to the drain should be blocked during pressure washing. With the property owner's permission, the collected wastewater can then be pumped into a sanitary sewer clean out..."

My understanding so far is that:
1) storm sewers and storm drains are off limits... do everything we can to keep our water and dirt and anything else out of the storm drains (gutters at the curb by the sidewalk and such)
2) sanitary sewers and drains on the other hand are able to handle water and soil in reasonable non hazordous amounts no problem. These are the drains such as our toilets and bathtubs and sinks.

I'm still working to understand "how much" grease for instance, and what kinds of cleaners are acceptable for sanitary sewers so I can plan appropriately for the restaurant vent cleaning business in California.

There are several names for the storm sewer systems, and other names for the sanitary sewer systems. I think it boils down to two major ideas:

* if the drain goes directly to our rivers, then don't put anything down it. These are storm drains, gutters in the street etc.

* if it's going to end up at a sewage treatment plant, then we can be more flexible. That's where everyone's regular day to day sewage goes anyway and if our wastewater can play well with their wastewater, cool. We still have to avoid dumping hazordous waste in these drains, but I'm not yet sure where they draw the line on hazordous or non hazordous.

Your local sewer plant manager can advise you more
on what their requirements are for washwater discharge. [hello]

chrisb said:

We still have to avoid dumping hazordous waste in these drains, but I'm not yet sure where they draw the line on hazordous or non hazordous.

Click to expand...

From all my research, it really depends on what chemicals you are using. Many cleaners are used in residential and commercial settings that get put in the sanitary system, so it is more compatible than just gray water from washing machines/showers and black water from toilet usage. Each plant is different though and some are very outdated and already at capacity. If one washer who does a large amount of cleaning were to discharge everything there, the plant could easily be "flooded".

Thanks Mark & MrAlan, good points. I'm going down to the Turlock wastwater treatment plant today and talk informally with someone there. I'm interested in their input regarding my kitchen exhaust wastewater, and also any possibilities for service station island wastewater. I know they're very different but I think I'd like to understand and be able to work with both types of wastewater. I'll let everyone know what they tell me.

grease and SH in the kitchen drains

I just got back from our county water treatment plant and our city municipal services, with answers for grease and SH.

They want us to keep grease out of the water treatment plant because the water treatment plant needs to get oxygen into the sewage water to help clarify it. With grease floating on top of the waste water, it makes it hard for air to get down in the water and the water treatment doesn't work as well. The restaurants have grease traps to solve the grease problem. The guy I spoke with said the smaller older restaurants that don't have grease traps should hopefully have less grease than the larger more modern ones. All in all, the idea was that a little grease isn't a catastophe but alot of grease can cause problems. Aside from the water treatment plant issue, too much grease can clog the sewer lines on the way to the treatment plant.

For the SH, it's not a problem at all as long as we test it for neutral PH. The dairies out here dump millions of gallons of water/SH that they use for daily cleaning of cheese making machines and such. They have enormous tanks that are used to neutralize the used washwater before it goes into the sanitary sewer (waste/sewage treatment plant that is). He said that the few hundred gallons of SH waste we create are not a problem once it gets mixed with the rest of the vast sewage water if it travels 2 miles to the treatment plant BUT it's no good for the sewage system to experience a slug of caustic water traveling all at once through the system that may meet up with incompatible water from some other place. That's why they need us to neutralize it before we dump it in.

NOTE: the above just applies to kitchen waste water... The rules are MORE STRICT for the roof water that's headed for the storm drain. Storm drains are off limits around here for anything. Not even dusty fresh water is really welcome in the storm sewer, gutters, roof drains. Ideally, we'll capture the roof water and get it in the kitchen drain for the grease trap to deal with.