Grey Water is not Black Magic

With the Governor of California declaring a drought emergency for 2009, all of us who live here — and especially those of us who work with the growing environment — need to find ways to reduce our use.  One of the least logical aspects of the way our homes are traditionally plumbed is the handling of so-called “greywater,” the water that has been used to wash our clothes and bodies.  In the vast majority of houses and apartments, this is not distinguished from “black,” or sewage water — it is sent to the public sewer line, and eventually treated and reused, at taxpayer expense.  Meanwhile, water from the public mains is brought in by the hundreds of gallons to irrigate, wash the car, wash the dog…

Of course, this is nonsensical.  The impurities added to water that make it “grey” — mostly soap — are perfectly safe to the touch.  There has never been a case anywhere, ever, of disease or harm of any kind resulting from contact with greywater.  And, in fact — what is particularly interesting to us as garden lovers — these soap residues, along with the other small particles of skin and hair found in greywater, are not only safe for plants, they are high in phosphorus and nitrogen.  That’s right, the two main elements we look for in the plant foods we pay for at the local garden center.

So, there can be little doubt in a reasonable person’s mind that the sensible thing for every Californian to do, along with switching from grass lawns to meadows of Carex pansa and wildflowers, and switching from spray to drip irrigation, is… irrigate with greywater.  The plumbing involved is not particularly complicated.  The outflows from bathroom sinks, showers, and clothes washers just have to be diverted away from the sewer outflow, and into the irrigation system.  (After that it gets a little murky, and there is a lot of misinformation around.  More on this later.)  There is only one potential problem, which is the confused and antediluvian state of California’s plumbing code, and the differing agendas of various state, city and county agencies whose permission is needed.

On the one hand, in Alameda County, where most of our business is conducted, there is the water supplier, East Bay MUD.  It is a little known fact — actually, it has come as a surprise to several EBMUD emplyees I’ve talked to — that not only does EBMUD approve of greywater systems, but they actually will give rebates to approved systems, based on the amount of water savings expected.  The head of water conservation, Dick Bennett, is very keen to get these things installed, and EBMUD is ready, willing and able to rebate up to $1000 of the cost of installing a greywater system in Alameda County.  They only issue a couple of rebates a year, though, because…

…on the other hand, we have the permitting process.  I won’t go into the details of California greywater law right now, but greywater systems ARE LEGAL in California, there is an appendix to the plumbing code that covers them, and they DO NOT require an engineer to perform a perc and mantle test — in case anybody has told you different.  Probably the biggest obstacle between most California homeowners and a simple greywater reuse system is that this is regarded as a building alteration, requiring a full set of plans, with every detail of your home and the surrounding topography, signed by the preparer.  If you don’t already have such a set, the cost of preparing them should be the biggest line item in your greywater installation budget (if your system is being installed in a sensible way), and probably makes it infeasible for many.

This is overkill (obviously), and it has to change.  While we are shepherding the applications for our greywater intallations through the Berkeley Permit Office, Wabi Wildscaping is actively lobbying said office to take a more lenient view, which they are open to doing.  It is going to take time, of course.  But it’s a hopeful sign  California’s entire ecology and economy are being transformed — water is no longer cheap, and it’s only going to get more expensive — and we HAVE to find ways to use it more efficiently, or there isn’t going to be any more California economy.