Should proprietary stormwater treatment systems continue to be deemed ‘pre-treatment’ or ‘treatment stages’ in their own right? If so what is the justification for holding this view?

Posted on 17/Feb/2015

Manufactured product solutions have a number of advantages over more conventional systems, in particular they can be laboratory tested to ensure consistent performance, they often reduce land take which is an important consideration in an urban environment, and they can be utilised to create effective hybrid solutions.

Additionally in many parts of Europe proprietary stormwater treatment systems are used to deliver water quality values to meet stringent soil and groundwater protection standards. Many of these systems have been installed for well over a decade, regularly monitored, and in some cases independently tested and approved.

Typical examples are D-Rainclean bio-remediation channel systems and Re-Medi8 engineered filter media, both of which have been installed in sites across the UK for a number years and have performed in line with their stated values.

Regardless of the timing of the implementation of Schedule 3 there is still a need to comply with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, and therefore developers and engineers need to be working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure any surface water leaving the development site meets the necessary requirements.

Would it be remiss of industry and regulators to exclude the use of proprietary systems if there is clear evidence that such solutions work and deliver benefits in circumstances where more conventional systems simply wouldn’t?……