Water Quality Blog

residential, commercial and marine usesWater Guard NZ Ltd’s new Septreat System –
There are many areas in New Zealand, and the Pacific, that have great difficulty getting compliance to build on, or use, land because of strict council requirements. Land, air and water contamination is becoming the big issue even in the marine industry.

Others, who care about the environment, want to be sure they are having at best a positive and at worst a neutral impact on the land and water they are using.

Issues are:

1. Land area is too small for waste water or aerated sewage treatment output through dripper lines for the size of home wanted by the customer.
2. Land to close to water ways I.E. river, sea, lake, creek etc as the leakage from the sewage systems. High bacteria levels enter these water ways causing long term damage to the environment and public health.
3. Marine grey water – most of this goes straight back into the sea, lake or river. The Septreat system is ideal for these applications by removing up to 100% of bacteria.
4. Sewage systems can leach into shallow drinking water bores causing very high levels of E Coli and other bacteria.
5. Livestock drinking water that is high in bacteria impacting cattle, sheep and goats used for meat and cheese production causing problems especially when exporting.
6. Dog kennels, catteries, equine blood stock, emus, lama’s etc are susceptible to health issues regarding contaminated water.

UV treatment of waste water using a “Septreat System” sold by Water Guard NZ Ltd is very cost effective and can be used on most grey and secondary treatment sewage systems with great success.

Two years of testing at Rotorua and KeriKeri test fields by Waipapa Tanks showed the bacteria levels on the output of the Septreat vary from zero to 5ppm making it nearly possible to drink, if you had too that is.

Organisms, bacteria and disease that is most likely to be in untreated waste water are numerous to list them, a few are, Gastroenteritis, Leptospirosis, Typhoid, Cholera, E Coli etc etc

What could this water be used for after UV treatment:

• The ability to surface run all dripper lines
• Build on small and difficult sites that previously were labelled obsolete
• Water your gardens
• Recycle grey water back into flushing the toilets

UV disinfection is a good way to destroy pathogenic organisms to prevent the spread of waterborne disease. It is important that waste water be properly treated prior to UV treatment in order for it to be fully effective. In short, the UV transfers electromagnetic energy to destroy the reproductive cycle of genetic material (DNA and RNA) and any solids would inhibit this.

UV advantages are:

• Effective on most bacteria, viruses, spores and cysts
• Is not a chemical disinfectant so there is no need to store toxic or hazardous chemicals
• No chemical damage to the environment
• There is no residue
• Very quick, safe and easy operation
• Cost effective
• Septreat systems can be shut down automatically after each treatment which saves power and increases the lamp life dramatically.

UV disadvantages

• If UV system lamps are below 95 watt they can be ineffective in high flow rates
• Turbidity/flow rate ratio must be calculated
• Regular maintenance required

What to look for when choosing a Septreat UV system

• Choose a system that has a small diameter S/S tube and a high power UV lamp of at least 95 Watt, a small radius measurement is the key!
• Choose a system that can automatically start and shut down. Saves power as the lamp is not running all the time and increases the lamp life dramatically.
• Septreat systems can be installed externally on two 4x3 posts
• Ease of maintenance
• Choose a system with a protective water proof solid aluminium cover.

In the USA the use of Chlorine for disinfecting waste water was having a dramatic effect on ecology with chlorinated organics in surrounding waters, by changing to UV treatment it had a zero residual after treatment and brought about the environmental protection act: the Toxic Catastrophic prevention.