Rainwater reuse for service vehicle washing

The object is located in the territory of State JSC “Latvian Road laying Maintenance Company” (LAU) Tukums District Branch in Kandava. The company manages state roads. In summer roads are graded, but in winter covered with salt and sand. Service vehicles have to be washed regularly. Before rainwater treatment plant installation service vehicles were washed with drinking water, but dirty water was discharged into the pound without any purification. In the year of 2012, 20 m3 of storage tanks were reconstructed and rainwater treatment plants with a capacity of 15 l/s and sand catcher 5 m3 were built. Purified water is reused for washing car equipment with a Karcher-type unit with a capacity of 0.25 l / s. About 800 liters of water are consumed per unit. The number of units and the required water consumption were obtained from LAU. After rainwater treatment plants and storage tanks installation, the company savings on drinking water are around 600-700 EUR per year. As rainwater treatment plants are regularly cleaned, not just rainwater is reused for service vehicle car wash, but also, side product – accumulated sand is used in winter for road (anti-slippery) treatment.