Wastewater Capture & Spill Containment
Washing a vehicle, a hardstand or a piece of plant where it stands creates a problem the wash itself does not solve: the water has to go somewhere, and kerbs, gutters and stormwater drains are not acceptable answers. Wastewater capture equipment intercepts runoff at the perimeter and recovers it before it leaves the site.
The equipment here is built around vacuum-sealed boom. A flexible boom is laid across the downslope edge and connected to a wet vacuum. The vacuum holds it against the surface and draws intercepted liquid along inside it, so containment and recovery happen in one action rather than as a barrier followed by a pump-out.
The range covers Vacu-Boom systems from Pressure Power Systems, supplied as complete kits or as individual 5 ft sections, cap ends, centre taps and clips so a run can be built to the site rather than the site worked around a fixed length.
How to choose
Match the run to the downslope edge, not to the vehicle. The manufacturer's own engineers report that buyers routinely overestimate the length they need. Work from runoff direction, drain positions and natural fall, and the answer is often a smaller system than expected.
Airflow decides whether it works. The seal is created by moving air, not by weight, so an undersized vacuum does not simply underperform — it may not hold the boom down at all. Vacu-Boom requires 202 CFM at 6.5 inHg for any run of 20 ft or longer. Among our Razorback portables, the MAXX machines meet it at 275 CFM; the standard fibreglass portables deliver 185 CFM and do not.
Keep the full 50 mm bore. Airflow is lost to restriction faster than to distance. A reducer at the machine inlet costs more seal than a long hose run does.
Automatic pump-out matters more than tank size. Without it the tank fills, work stops, the vacuum is switched off — and the moment the vacuum stops, the boom releases. On a job where the barrier is the environmental control, that is the worst possible moment to lose it.
The surface has to suit. These systems need a relatively smooth, hard, non-porous surface: sound concrete, sound bitumen, sealed timber or steel. Cracked or heavily jointed pavement lets air in under the boom, which is the same air that holds the seal down. On marginal ground, prove it on site before committing.
Capturing the water is one half of the obligation. Holding, transporting and lawfully disposing of it is the other, and trade waste conditions differ between jurisdictions — confirm yours with your water authority before relying on any capture system as a compliance control. For water removal rather than perimeter interception, see flood extraction.
The mistake we see most often is expecting the vacuum to compensate for a poor layout. The boom has to sit flat and continuously against the surface, with the pickup slots positioned where the water is actually travelling — not where you assumed it would travel. Gaps, uneven ground, badly seated joins, or a boom set too far off the water path all let air bypass the recovery area, and once that happens more vacuum will not rescue it. Get the layout right first, then worry about airflow. Vacuum does matter on longer runs, longer hose runs and multi-section builds, but it is the second thing to troubleshoot, not the first.
