Grey Water Systems
ALTERNATIVE GREY WATER SYSTEMS
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There are two concepts that sum up this book: 1) one organism's excretions are another organism's food, and 2) there is no waste in nature. We humans need to understand what organisms will consume our excretions if we are to live in greater harmony with the natural world. Our excretions include humanure, urine, and other organic materials that we discharge into the environment, such as "graywater," which is the water resulting from washing or bathing. Graywater should be distinguished from "blackwater," the water that comes from toilets. Graywater contains recyclable organic materials such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. These materials are pollutants when discarded into the environment. When responsibly recycled, however, they can be beneficial nutrients.
My first exposure to an "alternative" wastewater system occurred on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 1977. At that time, I was staying in a tent on a primitive, isolated, beach-front property lined with coconut palms and overlooking the turquoise waters and white sands of the Caribbean. My host operated a small restaurant with a rudimentary bathroom containing a toilet, sink, and shower, primarily reserved for tourists who paid to use the room. The wastewater from this room drained from a pipe, through the wall, and directly into the sandy soil outside, where it ran down an inclined slope out of sight behind the thatched pole building. I first noticed the drain not because of the odor (there wasn't any that I can remember), but because of the thick growth of tomato plants that cascaded down the slope where the drain was located. I asked the owner why he would plant a garden in such an unlikely location, and he replied that he didn't plant it at all - the tomatoes were volunteers; the seeds sprouted from human excretions. He admitted that whenever he needed a tomato, he didn't have to go far to get one. This is not an example of sanitary wastewater recycling, but it is an example of how wastewater can be put to constructive use, even by accident.
ALTERNATIVE GREY WATER SYSTEMS |
Graywater & Graywater Disposal Systems
There's been lots of talk recently that wastewater disposal on Cape Cod should evolve toward the use of composting toilets with innovative graywater disposal systems. Graywater is often seen as a benign material which poses a minimal threat to human health and the environment. For this reason, graywater has often been considered a good candidate for various types of reuse or disposal options rather than disposal in a conventional septic system. In this chapter we look at several alternative designs which have been proposed locally for disposal of graywater. We consider the environmental impacts of graywater, and try to balance the cost of alternative disposal options against environmental gains they may provide. We also look at the public health considerations which must be incorporated into any graywater disposal design.
Graywater & Graywater Disposal Systems |
Greywater.com
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Greywater is washwater. That is, all wastewater excepting toilet wastes and food wastes derived from garbage grinders. There are significant distinctions between greywater and toilet wastewater (called "blackwater"). These distinctions tell us how these wastewaters should be treated /managed and why, in the interests of public health and environmental protection, they should not be mixed together.
Conventional sanitary engineering has maintained that "sewage is sewage" whether it be greywater alone or total sewage (grey and blackwater mixed together. There is one reasonable argument for this position: namely, that greywater, if left untreated for a few days, will behave like total sewage. Both will become malodorous (become anaerobic), and both will contain a large number of bacteria. The observation of these common characteristics has given rise to regulations that do not distinguish between the various sources of pollution and which therefore mandate the same treatment for all wastewaters. But the differences between greywater and total sewage are far more important than their similarities, the following document will present an alternative strategy for treating/managing greywater and give the rationale for this approach.
Greywater.com |
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