Temporary treatment unit helps nursing home meet consent

Hired technology from water recycling specialist WCS Environmental Engineering (WCSEE) has been selected by a Somerset nursing home to provide onsite wastewater treatment that ensures high environmental standards.

Chelston Park is a 31-room nursing and residential home, in Wellington, six miles from Taunton, UK. In a rural location and not connected to the public sewer, the property is served by an onsite wastewater treatment plant and reed bed.

When part of the system reached the end of its operational life, it was taken out of service and the business needed a temporary solution to ensure high standards of treatment were maintained while a permanent fix was planned out. With tankering proving costly, the business and its specialist consultant Cress Water, opted to hire a submerged aerated filter (SAF) and blower on a temporary basis from WCSEE.

Connected between the existing inlet and final settlement tanks, the unit will provide the biological treatment process with technology that meets high standards for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia, and soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD).

WCSEE technical manager Dominic Hamblin said: “We are pleased to supply equipment for this temporary but important project at Chelston Park, to ensure its onsite wastewater treatment plant can maintain high environmental standards while part of the existing system is out of action. Hiring mobile SAF units enables sites undergoing reactive work, or planned refurbishment, to remain fully operational and within environmental consent.

“While wastewater from a nursing home is classed as domestic, you would expect there to be more washing up and laundry flows which need to be considered as part of the treatment process. Our temporary units are flexible and can easily manage this kind of effluent, connecting quickly and easily to existing units. The modular units operate on a “plug and play” basis and can be configured in any combination.

“With a large property such as this, tankering costs can quickly add up. Hiring the SAF units, whether short or long-term, is far more cost-effective and gives facility managers time to scope out a permanent solution.”

Chelston Park estates and business development manager Edward Allistone said: “Being in a beautiful rural location, we care for our surrounding environment and do not want to impact it. Hiring a wastewater treatment unit from WCSEE, while part of our system is out of service, has put our mind at ease – we know we can continue to treat effluent onsite in an environmentally friendly way, without the need for tankers.”