Liquid Trade Waste

Parkes Shire Council’s sewerage system is designed and constructed to handle liquid waste from domestic sources, which are generally of predictable strength and quality. Conversely, liquid trade waste from businesses and industry can place significantly greater demands on our sewerage system and, if left uncontrolled, can cause serious issues for public health, workers' safety, Council’s sewerage infrastructure, and the environment. Nonetheless, Council may accept liquid trade waste into its sewerage system as a service to businesses and industry. The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water oversees the Council’s management of liquid trade waste. According to Section 68 of the Local Government Act 1993, anyone who wants to discharge liquid trade waste into the sewer system must first get approval from Council. Discharging liquid waste other than domestic sewerage without approval is illegal under Section 626 of the Act.

The Discharge of Liquid Trade Waste to the Sewerage System(PDF, 1016KB) policy has been developed to ensure the proper control of liquid trade waste and the protection of public health, worker safety, the environment, and Council’s assets.

What is Liquid Trade Waste?

Liquid trade waste refers to all liquid waste other than sewerage of a domestic nature. It includes liquid waste from:

Industrial premises
Business/ commercial premises (e.g. restaurant, butcher, hotel, hairdresser
Community/ public premises (such as clubs, schools, hospitals and nursing homes)
Commercial activities undertaken at residential premises
Saleyards, racecourses and stables and kennels that are not associated with domestic households
Tankered human waste (e.g. portable toilet waste, mobile homes and caravans)
Discharges from common kitchen facilities in caravan parks

Liquid trade waste excludes liquid from:

Toilets, hand-wash basins (for personal hygiene only), showers and bath wastes derived from all the premises listed above.
Domestic sewage (wastewater from residential toilets, kitchens, bathrooms or laundries)
Wastewater from common laundry facilities in caravan parks Residential pool backwash

Fees and charges

Council offers sewage treatment and liquid trade waste services on a commercial basis, recovering costs through trade waste fees and charges. Council implements sound pricing for non-residential sewerage and liquid trade waste services to ensure dischargers pay a reasonable share of the costs and to promote proper pre-treatment, waste minimisation, and water conservation. Current sewerage and trade waste fees and charges are available on the Council’s website.

Council’s liquid trade waste fees and charges include:

Trade waste application fee
Trade waste installation inspection fee
Trade waste operational inspection fee
Trade waste service fee (annual)
Trade waste usage charges
Trade waste re-inspection fee

For charging purposes, there are 4 liquid trade waste charging categories:

Category 1 – discharges requiring minimal pre-treatment, or prescribed pre-treatment of a relatively low risk to the sewerage system.

Category 2 – discharges with prescribed pre-treatment

Category 2S – transporters who tanker human waste to Council’s STWs, and owners/ operators of ‘dump points’ directly connected to sewer.

Category 3 – large (>20kL/d) and industrial discharges (excluding shopping centres and institutions).

In addition to charging categories, four classification categories (A, B, C or S) have been established for concurrence purposes. The relationship between concurrence classifications and charging categories is shown below: