The legal obligations imposed upon companies by the Environmental Protection Act has resulted in increasing awareness of the potential discharge impact of industrial effluents into ground water or rivers. This has led to an increasing trend for 'worst-case' scenarios to be designed into the structure of buildings such as food processing, pharmaceutical and research laboratories, hospitals and process plants. This is especially applicable to drainage installed below the main floor slab, where future repair or amendment would prove prohibitively expensive.

Industrial drainage is a valuable asset. As such it needs careful investment consideration. In this context, selecting the most chemically resistant option at the outset - at nominal extra cost - may prove particularly advantageous as it gives an owner or plant manager the flexibility to introduce new processes with different or more corrosive discharges at a later date.