Gray water debate in Sacramento steams up

   

The graywater debate is reaching the boiling point in Sacramento, with lawmakers and gray water advocates both getting steamed in their attempts to draft a new residential gray water standard for the state of California. Under current law, homeowners who want to install systems that recycle the wastewater generated from their sinks, showers, bathtubs and laundry machines into their landscaping must conform to Appendix G of the California plumbing code, which requires that gray water systems not only be permitted by the appropriate administrative authority but installed underground with extensive filtering apparatus.

Appendix G went into effect in 1992 at the tail end of a five-year drought. Its update was required by Senate Bill 1258, which passed last summer, requiring the state's Department of Housing and Community Development to revise the code in an effort "to conserve water by facilitating greater reuse of graywater in California." While the code's revision is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2011, its specific provisions are currently under intense debate.

Gray water advocates say California's current residential gray water standard is too restrictive, impractical and expensive and are lobbying for a standard similar to Arizona's. In Arizona, homeowners are allowed to install gray water systems without a permit as long as they are recycling no more than 400 gallons of gray water a day and follow a set of 13 guidelines. Representatives from California's Department of Housing and Community Development, however, say they have to come up with a workable standard that "won't create any type of a long-term hazard for the whole state," said Jim Rowland, the HCD representative who is working on the new code. "We're not going to make everybody happy, but there's a bull's-eye in there somewhere."

According to Rowland, the main issues in the code's revision are the permitting and design processes. Under the current code, homeowners must obtain a permit to install a gray water system, and that system must be designed to meet all the technical requirements set forth in Appendix G. Rowland said his department is considering a permit exemption for a certain type of gray water system, i.e. a laundry machine diversion. His department is also determining if licensed contractors and governmental inspections should be required with those systems that would still require permits.

On the design side, Rowland said "there's a desire to have this be performance regulated rather than a prescriptive design. Instead of requiring X number of feet of pipe with X amount of holes for drainage at X depth, you are required to design the system so it will use all of the water intended from the fixtures that drain into it on a daily basis so you don't have standing water."

The primary issue with standing graywater is odor, which makes it a public nuisance issue. But there are health issues the HCD is also investigating -- ones that are difficult to fully understand since little long-term research exists on the subject, Rowland said.

Though gray water proponents say there have been no documented cases of gray water-involved illness in the United States, Rowland says there's also no long-term study that's been completed on the subject. Absent that, he said, "We really don't have anything to point to if we're challenged" by the state's Building Standards Commission, which ultimately has to sign off on any code the HCD comes up with.

Meanwhile, as the state's water crisis deepens, the use of unpermitted gray water systems continues throughout California. Art Ludwig, an ecological designer in Santa Barbara who has written three books about gray water and has been giving input to Rowland and the HCD, says only 10 permits for gray water systems have been issued in Santa Barbara in the last 21 years. He estimates there are 1.7 million non-permit gray water systems in the entire state, citing a Graywater Awareness and Usage Study conducted by the Soap and Detergent Assn., which found that 13.9% of Californians were using gray water.

In Los Angeles, fewer than 10 residential systems are permitted and legally installed each year through the Building and Safety Department. Dick Bennett, of the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Northern California, says fewer than 10 permits have been issued in his 1.4-million-residence area in the past 15 years.

"I get calls daily from people who want to know about gray water. They’re collecting it in a bucket, and they want to know about putting in a more formal system, and I give them the information and I never hear back," said Bennett, whose agency offers rebates of $250-$500 for legally installed systems that cost upward of $5,000. "That tells me if they did go ahead with gray water, they went with an unpermitted system.

"In a water shortage, that’s just where people go," added Bennett. "They went there in 1976 during the severe water shortage. They went there from 1988 to 1992, when we had the last serious water shortage. And they’re going to it again this year."

-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[alje]

Why can law makers be so difficult in passing new legislation. It takes so long for even the best things to be passed and accepted. Viva greywater!!!

[Mendel Potok]

We have so much gray water, we really should be doing everything we can to get the most use of it (we aren't getting very much new fresh water).

[Rob Romer]

Greywater needs to be treated (disinfected). Without treatment greywater can become very smelly and breed human & environmetally harmful micro oganisms.
There is a solution. TankPro - Greywater Treatment Sterilizing Units. Allows the water to be stored, treated and safely used back in the house for toilet flushing or for irrigation for the garden.

[Reality Cheque]

here's a novel thought- MOVE!

California is a perfect example of too many people in too small a space with too few resources- WATER & ENERGY!

You live in a desert. You have a natural inversion layer (the coastal foothills).

Get out. Move back to (insert native state here). Stop being a burden to a state that used to be a great place to live. Leave the oceans, the mountains, the roads and the landscape for the people that were born here.

Tear down the cookie cutter garbage now known as Orange County, and replant the orange groves- you do know that the county used to be blooming with orange trees, don't you?

LEAVE NOW- and TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU!!!!

[jk]

be careful
There are alot of soaps which are more dangerous than people think...
It would be a shame to see soil polluted and crops ruined.... people get sick, you know...

INSTEAD PICTURE and PROMOTE a device with totally PURIFIES WATER only allowing the water molecule to pass thru... there is no reason we as a society should settle for anything less... TOTALLY PURE

Hope in a better understanding

[draining machines]

Graywater is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing. Graywater comprises 50-80% of residential wastewater. Graywater comprises wastewater generated from all of the house's sanitation equipment except for the septic tank . Graywater is distinct from blackwater in the amount and composition of its chemical and biological contaminants . Graywater gets its name from its cloudy appearance and from its status as being neither fresh , nor heavily polluted. According to this definition wastewater containing significant food residues or high concentrations of toxic chemicals from household cleaners etc. may be considered "dark gray" or blackwater.

-mike-

[Craig Brown]

In Australia they have very high standards for greywater reuse. Accordingly no one buys the expensive greywater treatment systems, but more than half of the total population use greywater. They too have a lot of hand-wringing and soul searching about risk, but if a significant risk exists it is not apparent from the notified disease statistics, which do not appear to vary according to levels of (unregulated) greywater use. Take a look at my recent paper to the NZ Land Treatment Collective for a graph showing greywater use rates against notifiable waterbourne disease. It's not a perfect study, but it does show at the very least that any effect is not very large. It's available to view at www.watermiles.org.

[sheila]

do you think it's a coincidence that all the water agencies are jacking up prices right now, even while they are blocking greywater systems? same as how they have been blocking good rooftop solar policy, while they jack our prices for electricity?

this is no accident. DWP is not your friend, and none of the other mercenaries in water or power are either. time for us to take matters into our own hands and push for clean, renewable energy on our own properties, and clean, reusable water, too. the Robber Baron era has to end - it has killed our planet and bled us dry, and frankly, i've given enough.

[Bruce Broderick]

Having had some experience in procuring permits for Graywater systems in California, I think I can say that even with the update of regulations in California, we will still fall short of having a A Graywater recycling program that works well unless we incorporate the ability to flush toilets with Graywater as well as allow residential water treatment to occur to convert Graywater to Reclaimed water to allow for above ground irrigation. I am involved with a pilot program to move away from chlorine disinfection of Graywater and use Ozone treatment instead on a residential as well as a commercial basis. With this process we can reuse over half of our incoming water. This doesn't play well with private water conglomerates for profitability but it's certainly the right thing to do

[Art]

The most dangerous thing that can be done with drinking water is to mix it with large amounts of human excrement.

Oddly enough, we're currently required to mix *all* our excrement with drinking water.

The most dangerous thing to to with greywater is to use it to triple the volume of excrement water that a home or community produces.

Which is...also required!

Five million Californians have a better idea: irrigate their landscapes with the greywater (in open defiance of backward codes to the contrary).

In the last sixty years there have been over one billion system-user-years of greywater exposure in the US, with zero reported infections.

This is despite the fact that—thanks to prohibition—virtually zero of the eight million systems in the US were made with permits or help from licensed professionals. (licensed plumbers and contractors are about the only folks deterred by greywater's illegality).

How come large numbers of people aren't getting sick?

Aaron is right about open sewers being a bad idea. But greywater has hundreds to thousands of times fewer pathogens than combined sewage.

Logically, greywater systems could be hundreds of times less effective at sequestering pathogens from people and still be no more dangerous than septic or sewer systems.

That's why fewer people are getting sick from greywater systems than municipal sewers, despite the fact that virtually all greywater systems in the US use surface application.

The US greywater safety record shows that it is easier to get hit by lightening than to get sick from even poorly made and managed greywater systems.

Anti-greywater folks have been crying wolf for twenty years about greywater safety, but that argument is dead.

Officials who worry about legalizing simple systems claim that health is the concern. Why don't they care about over 8000 illegal greywater systems for every legal one? They're not liable for those.

Liability cowardice has cost California the leadership position in greywater regulation. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon are literally leaving us in the dust.

We're running out of water, oil, landfill space, CO2 absorption capacity, biodiversity, ozone...and the ability to distinguish collosal risks from inconsequential ones.

It's time to open the door not only to greywater reuse, but all radically simple technologies, if we are to have any hope of an orderly transition to a post-peak society.

Art

(For citations and links to all data sources, assumptions and calculations, see
http://oasisdesign.net/greywater/law/california/index.htm#references .

For free, open source plans for making a state of the art, inexpensive, low ecological cost laundry to landscape system, see http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/laundry .)

For strategies to remove institutional barriers to sustainability, see http://www.oasisdesign.net/design/legalizesustainability

[Marin Bob]

Long term study isn't needed. Arizona and New Mexico have had a simple performance type of code since 2001 and 2003 respectivly. There is plenty of experience in these states that have shown that this approach is perfectly safe. With a similar arid climate and recurring droughts, California needs to evolve too.

[Dave for alternate water source use]

The use of gray water is an important and viable way to conserve potable water, if done properly. We must move forward with allowing these systems to be utilized more cost effectively, while retaining rigid safety standards. We cannot expand the use of water that has a higher potential to negatively impact health and safety, while relaxing our current mechanism for ensuring that plumbing systems are installed and maintained in a safe and sanitary manner.

Not requiring a permit is a huge mistake. Disconnecting drains and rerouting them to the exterior is not a small plumbing job. It needs to be designed by qualified professional and installed by a qualified plumber in accordance with the building and plumbing code. Gray water systems can negatively impact fragile eco systems, improper materials and installation methods can lead to leaks, property damage, and severe health and safety consequences. In many areas, gray water is not used year round and must be diverted back to the drainage system. In cold weather climates, freeze protection measures must be considered. Electricity is needed for pumps and controllers. Retrofitting a gray water system into an existing home is well beyond minor plumbing work!!!

Once a system is installed, the owner needs to be educated on the proper use and maintenance of the system and making the needed behavioral changes to ensure the system is used and maintained in a safe and sanitary manner. This should be done by a qualified system designer and installer.

If the cost and bureaucracy of the permit process is the issue, then demand a better process.

[nmoore6676]

When I was a kid in Ohio it was usual for people to have their washing machines drain onto the ground. The two main reasons were so that the septic tanks wouldn’t be overloaded and also so the well water which could be scarce wasn't wasted watering lawns and gardens. Before septic tanks Ii think most kitchen sinks also drained outside as well but they sometimes used drywells or cesspools. With the advent of septic tanks replacing privies and installing garbage deposers in kitchens the sink drains also went to the septic tank.

[Aaron]

When SARS rears it's ugly head again, all these knucklehead gray water types should be made to drink it...

I am speaking about an outbreak of SARS in China related to leaky sewage pipes, you can read more about it here.

http://www.ottawasewergatefiasco.com/sars-1.htm

How about you let all your water go to the water treatment plant (where it ought to go) and let them turn it into recycled water the correct way?