Latest news regarding the standard for small wastewater treatment systems

In 2016, the EN 12566-1, -3, -4, -6 and -7 standards for small wastewater treatment systems were published at the national level after having been aligned with the Construction Products Regulation. Unfortunately, they have not yet been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and thus cannot be used for CE marking.

National standardization bodies are not responsible for this delay. Rather, it results from new developments in the field of regulations for the publication of harmonized standards. Standards are based on a mandate or request that standardization bodies receive from the European Commission. All mandates contain a general part that comprises their underlying conditions, including deadlines, relevant documents, handling of levels and classes, underlying conditions for selecting test methods, and general requirements for the contents of the standard. New answers pertaining to the mandate must be prepared if any of these conditions change.

According to the European Commission, this situation applies to the standards that govern small wastewater treatment systems as well as to hundreds of other standards. For this reason, 800 harmonized standards are still awaiting publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. European standardization organizations are currently preparing new templates for the mandates as well as answers pertaining to the mandates in order to be able to publish the “stockpiled” standards as soon as possible.

After alignment of the standards for small wastewater treatment systems with the Construction Products Regulation, they are currently being restructured in close cooperation with the CEN consultant. Submission of the finalized standards and of associated answers for the mandate is envisaged for February 2018. Their official publication should be expected some months later. Currently, the 2013 edition of the DIN EN 12566-3 standard continues to apply to CE marking although a new version was published in Germany and other European countries in 2016.

Besides the adjustments referred to above, WG 41, the European working group for standards governing small wastewater treatment systems, has begun to revise EN 12566-3 to adapt the standard to findings obtained from tests of relevant construction products performed in the past few years. However, we should not expect any specifications that would require re-testing of previously CE-marked small wastewater treatment systems.