Waste water assessment

1. An apparatus, comprising:

transceiver circuitry for periodically transmitting microwave signals through a wall of a closed conduit channeling waste water away from property and for receiving reflections of the microwave signals, from within the closed conduit, that have passed through the wall of the closed conduit;

processing circuitry configured to:

process one or more of the reflections of the microwave signals to determine a distance between the transceiver circuitry and a surface of the waste water flowing in the closed conduit;

determine that the determined distance has been constant for a period of time;

distinguish between a constant determined distance corresponding with a steady flow of waste water in the closed conduit and a constant determined distance corresponding with a blockage in the closed conduit by determining that there is the blockage in the closed conduit if the period of time is longer than a threshold period of time; and

cause a user to be alerted as to a presence of the blockage in response to the processing circuitry determining that the determined distance between the transceiver circuitry and the surface of the waste water has been constant for the period of time longer than the threshold period of time.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a height of the waste water in the closed conduit is determined using the determined distance between the transceiver circuitry and the surface of the waste water.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an alert is provided by at least one of a light emitting diode or an audible alarm.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a housing, wherein the processing circuitry is located in the housing.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein an alert is provided by an alerting device that is located outside the housing.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to quantify waste water flow through the closed conduit using the determined distance.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine an amount of waste water flowing through the closed conduit at a particular time by processing at least one property of a first reflection of a transmitted microwave signal.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the at least one property includes a first amplitude of the first reflection of the transmitted microwave signal relative to a second amplitude of the transmitted microwave signal.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the at least one property includes a time elapsed between the transmission of the microwave signal and a reception of the first reflection of the transmitted microwave signal.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine an amount of waste water that has flowed through the closed conduit over a period of time by processing at least one property of a first reflection of a transmitted microwave signal.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to process one or more of the reflections of the microwave signals to determine whether one or more impurities are present in the waste water.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the one or more impurities comprise one or more hydrocarbons and/or one or more metals.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine whether one or more impurities are present in the waste water by determining at least one of: an amplitude, phase, frequency, polarization and degree of scattering of one or more reflections of the microwave signals.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to process one or more reflections of the microwave signals to determine a quantity of a particular impurity present in the waste water.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the transmitted microwave signals are ultra wide band microwave signals.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a waveguide configured to guide transmitted microwave signals through the wall of the closed conduit.

17. A method, comprising:

periodically transmitting microwave signals, using transceiver circuitry, through a wall of a closed conduit channeling waste water away from property;

receiving, at the transceiver circuitry, reflections of the microwave signals, from within the closed conduit, that have passed through the wall of the closed conduit;

processing one or more of the reflections of the microwave signals to determine a distance between the transceiver circuitry and a surface of the waste water flowing in the closed conduit;

determining that the determined distance has been constant for a period of time;

distinguishing between a constant determined distance corresponding with a steady flow of waste water in the closed conduit and a constant determined distance corresponding with a blockage in the closed conduit by determining that there is the blockage in the closed conduit if the period of time is longer than a threshold period of time; and

causing a user to be alerted as to a presence of the blockage in response to a determination that the determined distance between the transceiver circuitry and the surface of the waste water has been constant for the period of time longer than the threshold period of time.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17 , further comprising: fitting transceiver circuitry, for periodically transmitting the microwave signals, to a position adjacent to the closed conduit and outside the closed conduit.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the method as claimed in claim 17 to be performed.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

transceiver means for periodically transmitting microwave signals through a wall of a closed conduit channeling waste water away from property and for receiving reflections of the microwave signals, from within the closed conduit, that have passed through the wall of the closed conduit;

means for processing one or more of the reflections of the microwave signals to determine a distance between the transceiver means and a surface of the waste water flowing in the closed conduit;

means for determining that the determined distance has been constant for a period of time;

means for distinguishing between a constant determined distance corresponding with a steady flow of waste water in the closed conduit and a constant determined distance corresponding with a blockage in the closed conduit by determining that there is the blockage in the closed conduit if the period of time is longer than a threshold period of time; and

means for causing a user to be alerted as to a presence of the blockage in response to a determination that the determined distance between the transceiver means and the surface of the waste water has been constant for the period of time longer than the threshold period of time.