Waste Water Management outside of the City Limits

[Lagergnome]

Greetings Brewers:
I wonder, out of all of my brewing colleagues, if anyone has had the supreme pleasure of brewing out of city limits, away from city sewer systems. What kind of problems did you have, how expensive/extensive were the improvements? I understand this may vary from State to State. I am in Alabama.

I'm considering a location where a 1000gallon septic system is in place for a small turn key micro, annual 500-750bbls production. I would like to use everything and maximize the residual substrates. Spent Grain, Yeast, Beer Slurry, Grey Water with trace chemicals such as Sodium Hydroxide, Acetic and Phosphoric Acid (most of which will neutralize one another). Is there a type of cistern or pit that can be used to accept runoff on undeveloped commercial property?

Thanks for any help, tips or pitfalls!

[liammckenna]

If you have space (<1 acre), I'd look at a constructed wetland. Functions 24/7, 365 days of the year. Has a lifespan of decades. Have seen it save small wineries in Ontario 100's of thousands of dollars per year in treatment costs.

Still need a drainage field.

Pax.

Liam

[South County]

Our project will be located on 3.5 acres of commercial/light industrial land in Fawn Grove, PA. A very small rural farming town (460 residents). We have on sight well water and septic for human effluent but had to use a entirely different system for the brewery waste water. The Department of Environmental Protection (Harrisburg) requires us to install 3 sealed tanks at 3,000 gallons of holding capacity each with floats and alarms to retain freeboard. That gets pumped by a local company and trucked to a sewage treatment plant. With that said we had to get a guarantee from a treatment facility that they would take the waste. Only to have one catch, no "standard" municipal treatment plant would guarantee it because of the Chesapeake bay water shed act and the new limitations on what they can receive, which they have yet to see because of the new stimulus bill. So we had to contact an Industrial waste water cleanup company that pumps the waste water then they compact the solids and landfill them, and treat the water separately. Ironically the cost is the same at 9 cents per gallon either way. We will use the local company until the CBWA says that we can't, then will we use the industrial place. Even if we had the land we can't install a small on-site treatment facility because the state will not allow it.

Also forgot to mention that we have to have a stormwater management pit. 22'x22'x6' deep pit lined with Geo-tech filter cloth and filled with #57 gravel. All the rainwater runs into this.

[Lagergnome]

Great Info!

Thanks Todd and Everyone...this is good input for the future brewery.