Greywater

Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry and dishwashing, laundry and bathing which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation, and constructed wetlands.

Greywater comprises 50-80% of residential wastewater generated from all of the house's sanitation equipment (excepting toilets). Water from the toilets is designated sewage or blackwater to indicate it contains human waste.

[HACKER ALERT KENTERAH TOTALLY HACKIN THE PAGE LIKE TOTALLY DUDE]==Definition== Greywater gets its name from its cloudy appearance and from its status as being neither fresh (white water from groundwater or potable water), nor polluted (sewage). According to this definition, wastewater containing significant food residues or high concentrations of toxic chemicals from household cleaners, etc., may be considered "dark grey" or dirty water.

Challenges

In recent years, concerns over dwindling reserves of groundwater and overloaded or costly sewage treatment plants have generated much interest in the reuse or recycling of greywater, both domestically and for use in commercial irrigation.

However, concern over potential health and environmental risks mean that many jurisdictions demand highly intensive treatment systems for legal reuse of greywater making the commercial cost of greywater higher than freshwater. Despite these obstacles, greywater is often reused for irrigation legally and illegally .

In droughtzones or areas hit by hose pipe bans (irrigation restrictions), greywater can be harvested informally by manual bucketing. In the third world, reuse of greywater is often unregulated and is common. At present, the recycling of greywater is poorly understood compared with elimination.

Elimination of graywater

Domestic wastewater is usually combined at the sewer, so that grey- and blackwaters are removed together using a shared sewerage system in a process called elimination.

Sewage water can then be treated to limit pollution and health risks, before being returned to the environment at large. Most greywater ends up as effluent in rivers and oceans in this way.

There are other alternatives to eliminating greywater that allow for efficient use; using it to irrigate plants is a common practice. The plants use contaminants of greywater, such as food particles, as nutrients in their growth. However, salt and soap residues can be toxic to microbial and plant life alike, but can be absorbed and degraded through constructed wetlands and aquatic plants such as sedges, rushes, and grasses. Kenterah p. was her love ya

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Application of recycled greywater

Irrigation

Greywater typically breaks down faster than blackwater and has lower levels of nitrogen and phosphorus . However, all greywater must be assumed to have some blackwater-type components, including pathogens of various sorts. Greywater should be applied below the soil surface where possible (e.g., in mulch-filled trenches) and not sprayed, as there is a danger of inhaling the water as an aerosol.

Long-term research on greywater use on soil has not yet been done and it is possible that there may be negative impacts on soil productivity. If you are concerned about this, avoid using laundry powders; these often contain high levels of salt as a bulking agent.

In any greywater system, it is essential to put nothing toxic down the drain--no bleaches, bath salts, artificial dyes, cleansers, shampoos, and no products containing boron (which is toxic to plants at high levels).

It is crucial to use all-natural, biodegradable soaps whose ingredients do not harm plants. Most powdered detergents, and some liquid detergents, are sodium-based, which can inhibit seed-germination and destroy the structure of clay soils.

"Natural" body products often contain substances toxic to humans, including parabens, stearalkonium chloride, phenoxyethanol, polyethelene glycol (PEG), and synthetic fragrances.

Indoor reuse

Recycled greywater from showers and bathtubs can be used for flushing toilets in most European and Australian jurisdictions and in United States jurisdictions that have adopted the International Plumbing Code.

Such a system could provide an estimated 30% reduction in water use for the average household. The danger of biological contamination is avoided by using:

• a cleaning tank, to eliminate floating and sinking items
• an intelligent control mechanism that flushes the collected water if it has been stored long enough to be hazardous; this completely avoids the problems of filtration and chemical treatment

The Uniform Plumbing Code, adopted in some United States jurisdictions, prohibits greywater use indoors.

Extreme living conditions

Greywater use promotes the ability to build in areas unsuitable for conventional treatment, or where conventional treatment is costly. The Mars Desert Research Station uses greywater recycling, and might be used on trips to Mars to reduce water consumption and increase oxygen generation.

Heat reclamation

Devices are currently available that capture heat from residential and industrial greywater, through a process called drainwater heat recovery, greywater heat recovery, or hot water heat recycling.

Rather than flowing directly into a water heating device, incoming cold water flows first through a heat exchanger where it is pre-warmed by heat from greywater flowing out from such activities as dishwashing, or showering. Typical household devices receiving greywater from a shower can recover up to 60% of the heat that would otherwise go to waste.

Ice rinks

Lee Valley Ice Centre in Leyton, London, is the first example of the use of a greywater system in an ice arena context, a concept which reduces the otherwise considerable water use associated with such activities.

Ecology

Because greywater use, especially domestically, reduces demand on conventional water supplies and pressure on sewage treatment systems, its use is very beneficial to local waterways. In times of drought, especially in urban areas, greywater use in gardens or toilet systems helps to achieve the goals of ecologically sustainable development.

Benefits

The potential ecological benefits of greywater recycling include:

• Lower fresh water extraction from rivers and aquifers
• Less impact from septic tank and treatment plant infrastructure
• Topsoil nutrification
• Reduced energy use and chemical pollution from treatment
• Groundwater recharge
• Increased plant growth
• Reclamation of nutrients
• Greater quality of surface and ground water when preserved by the natural purification in the top layers of soil than generated water treatment processes

In the U.S. Southwest and the Middle East where available water supplies are limited, especially in view of a rapidly growing population, a strong imperative exists for adoption of alternative water technologies.

Potential downsides of greywater recycling

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has expressed concern that greywater recycling for use in residential washing machines and for watering xeriscapes could encourage greater water use, and reduce the amount of water returned to Lake Mead, a reservoir currently experiencing a drought.

Greywater users and advocates dispute these claims.

Governmental Regulation

Government regulation governing domestic greywater use for landscape irrigation (diversion for reuse) is still a developing area and continues to gain wider support as the actual risks and benefits are considered and put into clearer perspective.

'Greywater' (by pure legal definition) is considered in some jurisdictions to be 'sewage’ (all wastewater including greywater and toilet waste), but in the U.S. states that adopt the International Plumbing Code, it can be used for underground irrigation and for toilet flushing, and in states that adopt the Uniform Plumbing Code, it can be used in underground disposal fields that are akin to shallow sewage disposal fields.

California, Utah, New Mexico and some other states allow true underground drip irrigation with greywater. Where greywater is still considered sewage, it is bound by the same regulatory procedures enacted to ensure properly engineered septic tank and effluent disposal systems are installed for long system life and to control spread of disease and pollution. In such regulatory jurisdictions, this has commonly meant domestic greywater diversion for landscape irrigation was either simply not permitted or was discouraged by expensive and complex sewage system approval requirements. Wider legitimate community greywater diversion for landscape irrigation has subsequently been handicapped and resulted in greywater reuse continuing to still be widely undertaken by householders outside of and in preference to the legal avenues.

However, with water conservation becoming a necessity in a growing number of jurisdictions, business, political and community pressure has made regulators seriously reconsider the actual risks against actual benefits.

It is now recognized and accepted by an increasing number of regulators that the microbiological risks of greywater reuse at the single dwelling level where inhabitants already had intimate knowledge of that greywater are in reality an insignificant risk, when properly managed without the need for complex, expensive and onerous red tape approval processes. This is reflected in the NSW Government Department of Water and Energy's newly released greywater diversion rules, and the recent passage of greywater legislation in Montana. In the 2009 Legislative Session, the state of Montana passed a bill expanding greywater use into multi-family and commercial buildings. The Department of Environmental Quality has already drafted rules and design guidelines for greywater re-use systems in all these applications. Existing staff would review systems proposed for new subdivisions in conjunction with review of all other wastewater system components.

See also

• Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT)
• Ecological sanitation
• List of waste water treatment technologies
• Organisms used in water purification
• Reclaimed water
• Sanitation
• Sewage
• Water conservation
• Water purification

External links

• Greywater at Curlie
• NSW Government Greywater
• Center for the Study of the Built Environment's Graywater Reuse Project
• UK Environment Agency: Reusing greywater and harvesting rainwater