Australia OGTR Guidelines for Certification of a PC2 Large Scale Facility (Version 3.1) R25: Liquid waste treatment system located outside the work area

What does R25 require?

If the facility has an LWTS that sits partly or wholly outside the work area, all of the following must be met: (a) the LWTS is a fully enclosed system of tanks, pipes and other components; (b) the LWTS and its components are built of robust materials that suit the waste being treated and can be decontaminated so they can be inspected and maintained; (c) the chance of physical damage to parts such as collection tanks and pipes is kept to a minimum (for example by placing them where likely causes of damage cannot reach them); (d) it should be possible to inspect pipes along their whole length, and they must be suitably labelled, and where they cannot be inspected (such as where they pass through walls or floors) they must be double skinned or fitted with a way of detecting leaks; (e) any vents on pipes, tanks and similar parts are filtered to stop GMOs escaping (for example by fitting HEPA or 0.2 µm membrane filters); (f) there are strategies to keep intact the seals of the treatment parts and of the parts holding untreated waste, for example vent lines, holding tanks and drain pipes; (g) screening limits solids leaving the work area through the LWTS; (h) the room or area where the LWTS is housed has secondary containment, bunding for example, to hold any leak, (i) sized for the liquid waste volume of the largest single container, or of a group of containers where interconnection could let several leak at once, plus whatever disinfectant may be used, with extra capacity so expected general fluid movement does not breach it, and (ii) smooth, impermeable to water, easy to clean and resistant to the cleaning or decontamination agents that would be used if the LWTS leaked; and (i) there is a documented contingency plan, with the means in place, for responding to any leak of GMO-containing waste or a failure of the LWTS, naming any specialised equipment to be used. The guideline lists sensor or valve failure, power loss, loss of critical utilities, inability to receive effluent and loss of heating or cooling as examples of LWTS failure.