Tecnicomar Overcomes Compliance Issues and Launches New Sewage Systems

It is now in the public domain that Tecnicomar has recently incurred the withdrawal of MED certification relating to one of its older series of sewage treatment plants (STPs). It occurred notwithstanding that certification had been issued and maintained for many years without objections from any of the responsible parties.

Without entering into the merits of the matter (including modalities, timing and purported grounds of said withdrawal), it should be also made public that the alleged “defect” which lead to a presumption of a “necessary non-conformity” – never demonstrated and indeed strongly contested by our company, rejecting any purported liability and/or guilt on the matter – concerned the general design and performing process of our old STP, which is indeed common to dozens of other manufacturers’ STPs on the market.

It is not surprising, therefore, that MEPC itself formally acknowledged that 97 percent of STPs on the market, if retested, may be found to be out of compliance with required standards. 

The good news is that our company, before the unexpected and unjust withdrawal and in the context of its ordinary research and development activity, had already been developing and can offer now a new generation of STPs. The ECOmar S and the brand new ECOmar SX series are leading-edge treatment systems which definitely overcome any compliance issues. Some of our esteemed competitors will probably be disappointed to know that Tecnicomar is still in the race.

With that said, we join the chorus of those operators in the field who, publicly criticizing and putting into question the reliability of certain approval bodies, have already invoked full implementation of monitoring and enforcement actions by the competent authorities around the globe. We all expect that, in the coming months and years, attention shall be focused on all those numerous STPs on the market that are likely to have one or more of the old common “defects,” the presence of which should lead certification bodies and competent authorities to demand retesting and new conformity checks, and - where appropriate - order manufacturer(s) to take corrective measures. 

“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Laura De Vita is General Manager for Tecnicomar S.p.A.