What TasWater expects of Hobart businesses
Consent before you open
TasWater says commercial trade waste customers must get a Trade Waste Consent before starting the business activity. Any business discharging trade waste to sewer has a legal obligation to apply.
Pre-treatment may be required
An onsite inspection decides whether a pre-treatment system, such as a grease arrestor, has to be installed or upgraded. A business that needs one will need to submit a Development Application.
No sink macerators
TasWater's commercial trade waste page says sink macerators are not permitted under any circumstances.
Backflow at the boundary
Every property connected to TasWater's supply needs a suitable backflow containment device at the boundary. The owner pays for installing it, maintaining it, annual testing and administration.
Which businesses are trade waste customers
TasWater's commercial list is broad: restaurants and cafes, pubs and hotels, bakeries, butchers and supermarkets, hairdressers and beauty salons, laundromats, automotive workshops and car washes, child care centres, nursing homes, schools, hospitals, and medical businesses including dentists and vets. It also lists any business with a commercial kitchen.
Customers are sorted into categories by how much waste they discharge and how strong it is. Category 2 customers need physical pre-treatment at the source. TasWater runs a no-interest repayment scheme to help Category 2 customers install or upgrade a compliant pre-treatment system.
Grease and Hobart's cold
TasWater says most fats and oils turn solid in cooler temperatures and congeal in the network, binding with wipes, hair and other debris. In a commercial kitchen, that's why the grease arrestor and sink strainers matter, and why staff shouldn't pour fat down any drain.
Backflow: hazard ratings and testing
The device TasWater requires depends on the hazard rating of what happens on site, under AS/NZS 3500.1: high, medium or low. For a new commercial or industrial development where the hazard isn't known at application time, the rating defaults to high.
A certificate for certifiable work from TasWater may come with a condition that the owner installs a backflow device. The device belongs to the customer, apart from the water meter, so the annual test is on your calendar, not TasWater's. See our backflow testing page.
Permits, categories and licences
The City of Hobart sorts plumbing work into four categories, from low risk work to high risk work it must inspect. Notifiable work can't start until the City has issued a Certificate of Likely Compliance. Your plumber should tell you which category each part of the fit-out falls in.
Whoever contracts for the work needs a Tasmanian plumbing contractor licence of the relevant class, and the people on site need practitioner licences. In aged care, health care, early childhood centres and the parts of schools children use, hot water at personal hygiene fixtures is limited to 45°C, lower than the usual 50°C.
Questions for a Hobart commercial plumber
- Have you handled TasWater trade waste consents and inspections before?
- Will my fit-out need a grease arrestor, and who lodges the Development Application?
- What backflow device does my hazard rating need, and who does the annual test?
- Which categories of plumbing work are in this job, and which need City inspections?
- What's your contractor licence number?
What we would do
Talk to TasWater about trade waste before you sign a lease or order a kitchen, not after. If the site needs a grease arrestor, the Development Application and the install take time, and opening without consent isn't an option. Ask a commercial plumber to walk the site with you, list what TasWater and the City will want, and price it as one job.