RA Dalton Success Stories

In early December 2016 with Christmas and the New Year rapidly approaching one of our customers was very keen to have a new Sewage treatment plant installed at their caravan site in Leeds before the New Year came around. To speed up this process it was agreed that we would supply and install the plant and the customer would install all of the drainage.

The Klargester BL BioDisc is designed to deal with up to 150 population which was ideal to serve the 25 x two bedroom cabins and a domestic dwelling with 10 bedrooms. The system was gravity fed with the drainage running to the lowest point of the site, some aspects of the pre-existing line were to be redirected from the old toilet block to run into the new plant. This would mean that the pre-existing tank could be retained as a water storage vessel.

The outfall from the BioDisc was then discharged into a nearby watercourse; to do this we were required to apply for a permit to discharge, this is a necessity to ensure that the outlet is not an environmental hazard to the beck. The BL BioDisc is designed to discharge an effluent quality of 20 mg/l BOD, 30 mg/l Suspended Solids and 20 mg/l Ammonia; this was ideal for the application as the Environment agency has outlined that the effluent quality should not exceed the above measurements.

It is a legal requirement to keep your system maintained and emptied on a regular basis, failure to do so could eventuate in defects occurring on your system causing it to not operate as designed and discharge illegally. Therefore it is essential to keep records of any maintenance that is carried out and remedy any issues that are raised otherwise you could be liable for a fine from the EA should they test the effluent quality and it be above the desired levels.

For a vessel of this size we would recommend servicing intervals of every 3-4 months and desludging (emptying) as and when required; this is normally advised by the servicing engineer at each service visit but should not be left for any longer than every 12 months to avoid thick sludge building up in the bottom of the tank.

Although the majority of the maintenance should be carried out by a servicing engineer there are a few checks you can do yourself:

• If you lift the lid of your sewage treatment system there should be no signs of fats or oils (this normally evident by a white/yellow residue across the top of the water).
• Check that there is no sign of cracks or excessive wear on any of the lids.
• Check to make sure there is no sign of surface water pooling around the area or voids appearing.
• Check the control panel (if applicable) to ensure that there is no fault codes showing or warning lights.
• Check the system is still running (i.e. in the case of a BioDisc that the Discs inside the plant are still turning).
• Check to make sure there are no foul smells in the area that could indicate blockages or faults within the system.

Doing all of the above checks regularly can help identify when a problem is arising, if you notice any of the above please don’t hesitate to give us a call as it could be the first sign of a more serious issue developing. However it is still crucial to get the system regularly serviced by an engineer as they will be able to identify potential issues before they progress further.

If you are interested in finding out more about our non-binding servicing agreements why not give us and a call and we will be able to discuss any queries you may have with you.