1-17: General Information
Waste Water Disposal advisory
There are laws in most communities prohibiting the dumping of recovered “gray” water
from carpet cleaning in any place but a sanitary treatment system.
The cleaning rinse water, recovered into your unit’s vacuum tank, contains materials
such as detergents, and must be safely processed before entering streams, rivers and
reservoirs.
In most cases, an acceptable method of waste water disposal is to discharge into a
municipal sewage treatment system after first filtering out solid material such as carpet
fiber. Access to the sanitary system can be obtained through a toilet, laundry drain, RV
dump, etc. Permission should first be obtained from any concerned party or agency.
One disposal method which usually complies with the law is to accumulate the waste
water and haul it to an appropriate dump site. Another solution to the disposal problem is
to use the Automatic Pump-Out System (APO). These systems are designed to remove
waste water from the extractor’s recovery system and actively pump the water through
hoses to a suitable disposal drain.
When properly configured, the systems will continuously monitor the level of waste water
and pump it out simultaneously with the cleaning operation. The hidden benefit of this
process is that the technician does not have to stop his/her cleaning to empty the recovery
tank.
IN ACCORDANCe WITH ePA, STATe AND lOCAl lAWS, DO NOT DISPOSe Of
WASTe WATeR INTO GuTTeRS, STORM DRAINS, STReAMS, ReSeRVOIRS,
eTC.
The penalties for non-compliance can be serious. Always check local laws and
regulations to be sure you are in compliance.
