Water New Zealand Web Forum

[jmack]

Hi guys & gals,

With the new international airline route coming to Rotorua it has introduced a new "situation" where the airport wishes to discharge the septage from the plane to our sewer - what are other Councils doing with this waste? We are wary of health standards that could restrict the amount of time the waste can be stored for etc but we don't want them doing what they have proposed and this is basically opening up a sewer manhole, parking over and hoping for the best...

Any constructive ideas are welcome

[Celia Bowles]

I don't have first hand experience - but here are my thoughts.

Firstly you probably need to know what the nature (any chemical component) and volumes (daily/weekly etc) of the waste is. I don't know what water treatment process you have at Rotorua, but you would probbly want to do a process survey of the works and look at what spare capacity (hydro and bio) you have. This will demonstrate the acceptability or otherwise of the waste. At treatment facilities which accept large volumes of industrial waste, balancing and blending is often used - but it depends on the nature of the waste and plant capacity.

Another question:-
What happens to waste from domestic airlines and how is it different to international apart from maybe volume?

[Jared Hansen - Waipa]

Hamilton Airport (which sits in Waipa District) takes both domestic flights waste and international flights waste in 2 seperate streams.

Domestic flights discharge into their own septic system as they are not connected to reticulated sewer (nor is it even available).

International flights discharge into holding tanks which WAS being brought to the Waipa septage handling facility. They only have a limited number of flights from Australia (via Pacific Blue) currently and I am unaware of where this is currently being discharged to currently.

The only reason I could see for seperation of wastes was from a health perspective (foreign pathogens). Volumes were tiny, maybe 3000L a month in 2 or 3 loads.

This waste was accepted as septage waste into our facility.
_________________
Jared Hansen BSc.
TRADE WASTE OFFICER
WAIPA DISTRICT COUNCIL
jared.hansen@waipadc.govt.nz
www.waipadc.govt.nz
Phone: 07 872 0030 ext 7581
Mobile: 027 478 6227
Fax: 07 872 0033