French drains

[Moonlight]

Did you mean "Trench" or "French"?
Wastewater that is anything other than pure water must legally be put underground in an engineered, and pre-digested system. French drains refer to a way of getting rid of rain water or such.
It would (at best) smell really, really bad.

[aeschill]

Interesting, we have a trench system at my current brewery and it was suggested by an assessor that we replace them, among other things, but I don't think it's required.

[xXBoldCityXx]

Check with your local EPA office. There was an existing one in the building that we use for our Brewery and our local EPA office made us fill in the hole with concrete and send all of the brewery waste down the sewer line.

Cheers,
Brian
Bold City Brewery

[aeschill]

What are the disadvantages of french drains in a brewery? Is it as simply as the exposure of waste water throughout such a long trench?