Sales of final effluent

What and why?

Final effluent is the cleaned and treated water from our Water Recycling Centres which Anglian Water is permitted by the Environment Agency to discharge directly into the environment. In some cases, final effluent is suitable for industrial or business activities and can be an alternative to the use of potable water.

We’ve detailed the process involved in applying for an agreement to purchase final effluent with relevant controls and conditions.

What are the legalities?

When final effluent isn’t discharged directly to the environment it is legally classed as a waste. This means that relevant waste regulations apply. We need to be sure that any final effluent we supply is being used and disposed of appropriately before we provide an agreement for its supply.

To ensure that the sale of the final effluent is compliant with regulations we require proof that there are suitable permissions and consents in place for its use from the Environment Agency up to and including the final discharge point.

What are the limitations?

The health implications of final effluent use will always be our prime concern; The use of final effluent for activities that come into direct contact with people may be unlikely to get permission from the Environment Agency without further treatment.

For some watercourses, Anglian Water and its Regulators have identified that our final effluent discharges provide a stable environment for local flora and fauna and positively impacts the health of the receiving watercourse. We may not be able to sell final effluent to you where the removal or reduction of these flows would have a detrimental impact on the receiving watercourse.

We need to ensure that any supply of final effluent does not introduce risk to our operational processes or our ability to meet our regulatory discharge permits.  Our review of your application will incorporate these and other points of consideration as appropriate.

If you wish to apply for a supply of final effluent please complete our application form, and provide details on what you are using the final effluent for and what permissions and consents you already have in place. This is not intended to limit your application but to ensure that when we are reviewing the application we have all the relevant information at hand.

I am ready to apply, what do I need to do?

If you are happy that you have sufficient information for us to assess your application then it is time to complete the form.

If the application is coming through your retailer then please make sure those details are complete. However, this is not market eligible therefore you are not required to use a retailer.

Once you have completed the form, our pre-planning team will handle your application. You need to raise a payment for the application fee. We will be in touch with you once we receive your application to discuss the fee, the payment method and the next steps.