Talk to me about gray water please

[greenrootsmama]

As a kid I remember my grandparents diverted their gray water to their apple trees but it was just free-flowing and any time someone ran water in the sink or grandma did a load of laundry the trees would get a drink. I think diverting our gray water to irrigate the garden would be a great way to reuse a lot of our water. The problem is that I don't want to water the garden every time I do dishes or a load of laundry. I like to water at night and early morning when there is less evaporation. I thought about storing it in a holding tank but I'm afraid the tank will end up with all kinds of lovely things growing in it within a short time. I don't like the idea of using chemicals to clean out the tank either. Does anyone do this? If so what is your system?

 

[FarmerChick]

Sorry can't help cause I don't do gray water diversion.

My MIL has her laundry piped outside and uses the water but I am not sure what the set up is truly that she uses.

Me, I let the gray go into the septic and let it go back into the earth.........I use rain water collection for the garden. That way I can easily have water available. Simplest for me at this point not to change my the setup I have currently.

Hope you find some good solutions.

 

[Wifezilla]

I did a paper on gray water recovery for college. Got an A and everything. Of course, this was BEFORE computers and I don't have a copy anymore....Grrrrrr.

Anyway, from what I remember, you can divert the gray water to a 55 gallon drum depending on your home set up. One example I gave of keeping things from growing in your tank was a homemade bleach drip. It was cheap and simple. Another option might be using spa chemical dispensers like those floating things that hold the tablets. Bleach in small amounts is pretty harmless, but you will have to decide what you think is best for your family.

Usually the easiest gray water to recover is from the washing machine. You will need some kind of lint filter and be careful about the types of soaps you use, but the washing machine already has a pump to help you get the water to where you want. The shower is your next source. Again, how you are able to recover it is going to depend on your house design and plumbing.

One of my sources was Mother Earth News Magazine. Of course that was a million years ago, but it might help to check out their website and see if there is anything new posted there.

 

[inchworm]

I looked into this recently and was surprised at the negativity I encountered. The overall consesus is that gray water is full of nasty bacteria. Virtually every place I looked recommended against it, especially for watering vegetable gardens. Do some thorough research before you decide.

Inchy

 

[greenrootsmama]

Last spring I visited a local commune that was starting up. Their main focus was water recycling. They pumped all of their water - including black water - to a greenhouse where they had several tanks for various stages of digestion. Once the water went through all of this treatment it was then irradiated. But it was still unfit for human consumption. I would imagine gray water going through a similar process might yield usable water. And maybe for irrigation purposes it wouldn't necessarily have to be fit for human consumption and, thus, require less intervention. I'll definitely have to look into it.

 

[Dace]

I do not know a lot about greywater but I do know that you do not want it on your edibles.
One very clever idea that I love is an outdoor shower in Pasadena CA being used by the Dervaes family in the warmer months. The water flows right into their little fruit tree patch...which helps the fruit trees to get more water during those months when they need it.
here is a video link.

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/10/12/outdoor-solar-shower/

 

[patandchickens]

For SURE it's not smart to store graywater (e.g. your plan with the 55 gal drum). Putting it directly onto plants, well I would not personally do it with a veg garden or where kids are playing (remember it's not just what's in the water when it goes *into* the drain, it's got a little bit of all the stuff growing in the pipes between the drain and the outlet, too), but I could see using it for other types of things if you're real short. I have read that if you have ANY problems with excess salts in your soils, graywater use can cause a lot of extra problems.

Some people try to build reed-bed filters upstream of a modest, shallowish manmade pond, the idea being to hopefully biologically-filter the high nutrients and 'bad germs' outta the water and then stockpile it in the pond for whenever you want to water. I don't really know much, pro or con, about such systems other than they take a goodly amount of effort and time before they are up and growing.

(e.t.a - it also depends what *kind* of graywater you're talking about, and what's likely to be in it, which will vary from household to household)

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

There are things you can run the water through to clean it up further. There are plants (like duckweed) that remove junk and crud from the water.

Inchworm, if you know where the graywater is coming from, you can decide where and how it will best be used. I wouldn't have a big problem using graywater from a regular load of laundry on my garden. Now a load of poopy baby clothes? That's different!

You could use JUST rinse water on veggies while letting the wash cycle water go down the drain or use that on pine trees or something you wont be eating.

I think a lot of the backlash you got is from ignorant germaphobes. You DO have to put some thought in to it, but it is doable.

One thing to keep in mind is that out west, it can actually be ILLEGAL to divert your graywater or even use rain barrels. That is the case where I live. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06702.html

 

[greenrootsmama]

Ok, so what type of gray water would be suitable? Maybe from the shower? We don't use soap, just BS and ACV to wash our hair and bodies. Same with the laundry.

We're moving to AZ so I'm really brainstorming as many water conservation methods to integrate as possible.

 

[Wifezilla]

Shower water and laundry rinse water will be the "cleanest" graywater, though I would use further treatment before putting it on something I would eat.