The wastewater legislation has been set to improve the condition of our environment. Improving wastewater management in sparsely populated areas improves the condition of lakes by preventing eutrophication and hygiene hazards. Our environment suffers from wastewater-based nutrient load, and the new, basic-level purification requirements are intended to lower the nutrient load significantly.
The environmental protection law demands significantly decreased stress on the environment
A part of the regulations for sparsely populated areas’ wastewater management have now been turned into laws for the environmental protection legislation. The Environmental Protection Act defines purification standards and their enforcement and the planning of wastewater systems. The basic level purification requirements determined in the Environmental Protection Act come into action in certain situations. The basic level purification requirements are expected if a water toilet is built on a property, if the water or drain equipment is changed or fixed, or if the property has a renovation project requiring a building permit.
In the Environmental Protection Act (527/2014) 154 § the untreated wastewater load when the wastewater comes from households is defined as the product of the average number of the residents using the wastewater system and the sparsely populated area load number. The sparsely populated area load number represents the average load of organic matter, phosphorous and nitrogen in grams per day in one resident’s untreated wastewater.
The purification requirement (527/2014 154 b §) regulates such purification for household wastewaters that the organic waste load on the environment is reduced by 80%. For total phosphorous the number is 70% and for total nitrogen 30%. The number is compared to the untreated wastewater purification determined with the load number.
Wastewater purification reduces the nutrient load on the Baltic Sea
According to the Finnish Environment Institute approximately 10% of the phosphorous and nitrogen load on the Baltic Sea comes from municipal, industrial and fish farming wastewaters. This number includes both the wastewaters that are drained directly into the Baltic Sea, and the nutrient load from catchment water.
The percentage of wastewater-based load of the total nutrient load on the Baltic Sea has decreased in the last decades. This is due to improved wastewater purification. Therefore, wastewater purification does have a real impact on the Baltic Sea’s phosphorous and nitrogen load, and wastewater purification reduces the number of harmful substances in the water. We want to be a part of reducing the nutrient load on the waters and the sea by impacting the decreasing of the nutrients in the wastewaters ending up in the waters. The solutions we have developed for removing organic waste from wastewater are in line with the goals of the new water purification act. We offer solutions for wastewater purification for B2B customers and communities, but also for individual people, and the eco-friendly ProtectPipe HOME MICROBE -microbe solution we have developed helps to purify the wastewaters in sparsely populated communities, lowering the nutrient load of the area. The ProtectPipe HOME MICROBE -microbe solution is available on our website.