The Water Industry Act 1991 defines any water used in the course of a trade or industry, and carried out at a trade premises, as “trade effluent”.

Trade effluent will include any water used in a production process or in washing or cooling activities. It doesn't include domestic sewage such as used water from toilets or hand washing which might take place on the site.

Non-Household premises producing trade effluent vary in size, from small launderettes to large chemical manufacturing facilities. Further information can be found on our Trade Effluent web pages.

Understanding your Customer's Requirements

If your end-user customer is proposing to discharge trade effluent, we recommend that you submit a General Enquiry (G01) form prior to submitting a Trade Effluent Customer Application Form (TECAF) to tell us about their requirements. We can then provide you with any additional information we need to ensure your customer's application is processed without delay. Once the end-user customer’s requirements have been defined and we receive a completed TECAF notice we’ll begin processing the application. This will include assessing their requirements against the capacity available in our sewers and at our Water Recycling Centre.

If your end-user customer needs to make a connection to our sewerage network you’ll need to do this before you apply for a consent.

Please see our Operational Manual for more information and guidance on Trade Effluent in our area.

Flow Meters

Where, as part of an end-user Customer's Consent, a flow meter is required, details can be sent to us via the Trade Effluent Private Meter Form