Friday 13 May 2016

Grey Water Collection

The drought here (following a mild, dry winter) has highlighted the critical need to be ultra water miserly.  We already use a lot less water than most families because we pay to truck our potable water in.  There's nothing like shortening the feedback loop to make us aware of how much of any resource we are using!  When tap water comes from city mains, we just don't conserve as much as when we see the volume of tank water declining each day.   In our case, it makes no sense to be using trucked in water for irrigating the garden unless absolutely necessary.   

Our solution has been to harvest grey water.  I was surprised to discover that we could significantly reduce our water usage by harvesting it and I was SHOCKED at how much water we use just in the  kitchen each day.   We've always been careful about not using more than necessary but until you have a visual on exactly how much goes down the drain, you just can't quantify it.

Plumbed in grey-water harvesting systems are not permitted here (which is a shame), but I understand the reasons behind it.   Grey water can rapidly become blackwater if not distributed immediately so there is the element of health risk when it's not handled, distributed or applied correctly.    Through careful engineering and appropriate handing of grey water,  lush, abundant gardens can feed families instead of feeding sewer pipes or septic systems!  

To get around the municipal barriers to grey water harvesting, I use a dishpan in the kitchen sink to collect produce washing water, cooking water, dishwashing water, etc.  It's surprising how quickly this fills up. 





In the bathrooms, we use ice cream pails which works very well.  

To complement these collection vessels,  I've put a 5 gallon bucket just inside the exterior door we use most frequently.  It's easy to dump the sink buckets into it as soon as they are full.   It's also much more convenient than going outside every time a sink bucket is full.  I am astounded at how often that is!      A 5 gallon bucket with a handle is also a lot easier to take out and dump (because of the handle) than taking out individual basin bins (which slosh around and end up al over me).  I've discovered it's impossible to carry the dishpan full of water out AND open and close the door whereas the handle on a 5 gallon bucket means we can use one had for carrying and the other to deal with the door.  MUCH better!   Shockingly, most days we can collect between 10 and 20 gallons of grey water from the house to be used in the garden.  This is amazing to me coming from only 3 sinks, but we cook a lot and have a slightly larger family.  

   * A CAUTION about using 5 gallon buckets in your home.  Young children can and do drown in very small amounts of water, so I do not recommend using this method if you have young kids.   Small kids are very curious and could easily fall into the bucket and be unable to get out (being top heavy and not strong enough to pull themselves out).  Use common sense in deciding is this method is appropriate for your family. 

An important word about the USE of grey water in the garden.  Grey water CAN make you sick if it's used on leafy veggies (lettuce, chard, kale, spinach, etc) or root crops (carrots, beets, onions, potatoes, etc).   If you eat any part of the plant that might come in contact with the grey water, do not apply it there.  

Grey water is however, PERFECTLY safe to use to water UNDER berry bushes/canes, fruit trees, tomato plants, beans, peas, corn, cucumbers and ornamental flowers, etc.  We mostly use ours near the house for convenience sake so that means flower pots, a few trees and berry bushes.

Do you harvest grey water?



12 comments:

  1. We dont save grey water, we have rainwater collection systems set up these are used for livestock and the garden, they are big IBC tanks and we have them at various locations around the smallholding, we have harvested grey water before and used it for flushing toilets.

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    1. Great idea for using grey water - and so simple - the water is right there in the basin bucket!

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  2. We use the grey water from our washing machine, we pipe it directly out onto the fruit trees and simply move the hose out from tree to tree, and the lawn. I must admit we are out of the habbit of using grey water elsewhere. Though we also don't use a lot of water. Quick showers and the little boys bath in a baby bath as we have no big bath. I cannot lift it though if I have the energy I scoop it out.

    At one stage when water restrictions were really tight a few years back when we were in very serious drought these kids of measures became law. There was no irrigation allowed, only had watering, and each house was numbered and delegated a day or two a week when they were allowed to water. Even then the watering had to be done around certain hourse, say before 8am and after pm.

    xx
    Good job, and I hope you get some good rain soon.

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    1. I think we are slowly moving toward sensible rules re: grey water distribution here - drought will force the issue.

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  3. Great post! We use rain barrels of course. I'm not ashamed either to say that we follow the "yellow is mellow" rule when it is just us at home. Company is free to flush as needed :) my kids bath in very little water. I used to keep a bucket in the shower to catch water which was later used to flush the toilet. The amount of potable water used to flush toilets in our society is just plain shocking. My husband used to blow his nose in a tissue then flush it down the toilet. He was raised in the city and had never considered how many litres of water that wasted. He doesn't do that any more :) I have to keep a dehumidifier running in my master bathroom after showers or we have a moisture problem. That reservoir of water is used to flush the toilet when needed. I used to live where my water is hauled in--I've been very water conscious ever since. Also grew up with a well that sometimes ran dry. I try to live like I had to carry the water by hand--very conscious of waste!

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    1. Yes - living like you have to carry it is the exact way to be successful at reducing water use!

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  4. when we were first married, our water was pumped by a windmill, no wind no water. And the tank in the well house held about 200 gallons with gravity feed to the house. So if you wanted a bath you turned the water on while you were eating supper, and by the time you were done you had three or four inches of water in the tub. Then you dumped in a kettle of water you boiled on the stove to warm it up! And we were always fairly clean!

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    1. Awesome Patty - that's so different from how luxuriously we all live now. Abundant hot and cold water at the turn of a tap...

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  5. Very interesting! Here in Delaware (USA) we've been having wet springs and falls for the last decade or two. So we have lots of water and green gardens. We did have a drought decades ago here and I remember our grass being brown then. Our weather also has been below average temps and we've had some of the coolest weather in 100 years. Good old-fashioned weather from when I was young 50 years ago! Andrea

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    1. Yes, Andrea climate change means different weather patterns everywhere. I'm hearing about wet, cold temps in other areas too. Change is the one thing we can count on.

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  6. I have been very convicted about our wasteful water ways in the past few years....I have a couple of questions.....Why is water used to wash produce dangerous to use on parts of vegetables you eat? And do you recommend any type of soap that would be safer to use in this system?
    Linda

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    1. Hi Linda, Bacteria growth in grey water is rapid and could cause illness. Tepid water and food debris, skin cells, bacteria and other substances combines to create the perfect environment for harmful bacteria to multiply. In fact, grey water (if left to sit) is classified as black water (like sewage) within hours so should never be used on any part of a plant that you would eat.

      As to soap, we use an eco-friendly dish soap without harmful chemicals in it and our hand washing soap is castille based. Our laundry soap is also grey water friendly but at this time we do not pump our wash water out into the garden. We hope to do that in the near future - it's just hard to access the back of the washer as it's built into a unit - on the list of projects!

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