Repurposed Greywater

[john61ct]

Good plan.

I got certified under Bill M and David Holmgren in Melbourne in the mid 80's, and my first family still lives in the passive solar mud brickie we built by hand in the Castlemaine gold fields and lives off the land to some extent. Great memories. . .

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

I just did a job installing a gantry crane and an on demand steam station in a fairly new factory that builds filtering systems that are being shipped to third world countries.
They said they are being dropped into sewage ponds to filter the water for potable water. It is more of a common practice than you think and grey water is safer than poop water and easier to filter.
Most of the United States is using waste water treatment that is sent back out as potable water through your public water and sewer provider. You are paying them to pipe your waste away from you and send it back to you as drinking water.
The only advice I can offer besides proper filtering systems is aeration in your system and it might be as simple as using sprinkler heads in your garden boxes.
Texas uses something called an aerobics system instead of septic tanks that use lawn sprinkler to aerate the waste water and all waste water treatment plant have massive aerators circulating there lagoons.
Good luck

[Rusty]

I'd ask these guys for tips:

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

Most of the United States is using waste water treatment that is sent back out as potable water through your public water and sewer provider. You are paying them to pipe your waste away from you and send it back to you as drinking water.

That made me scratch my head.... I know a (very) little about waste water treatment and this struck me as questionable. I picked up the phone and called a friend who is a waste water engineer and works for the waste water treatment plant nearby.

She was of the opinion that, while it is technically possible, it is not being done in the US.

She directed me to look for purple colored sprinkler heads at parks and golf courses. Code calls for that color to identify recycled waste water being used to irrigate with. That is the only approved use of treated waste water that she was aware of.

If you are going to attempt to reuse your grey water, please do it after looking at all sides. Do not wander, with limited direction, into a very unhealthy circumstance.

Be safe.

S.

[cadillackid]

are you going to be living in areas where it doest rain? seems like you would have a large rainwater collection / filtration system to filter the acids and such out of rain water.. simply collect enough water that you dont need ot go through heavy filtering of the grey water.. judging from the amount of water that runs off the roof of my bus it seems like you could collect quite a bit.. even if you had a greenhouse dome over the garden you could gutter it and collect alot of water and control how much you put on the plants..

as far as recycling sewage water in cities.. Yesi t is being done... the city water in columbus ohio is a good part recycled waste water ..mixed with processed fresh water from the reservoires. not all of the waste water is cycled in.. some of it is processed and then put back into the enviornment.. alot of methane gas is created in the processing.. that gas is captured and much of it is used for space and water eating of the city facilities.. I dont know if you can effectively capture methane and use it for your own sace / water heating as part of your off-gridding process??
-Christopher

[joeblack5]

Wow , so many great ideas. Wonderful to spend thoughts time and effort on solutions to the problems we are facing and will be facing in the future. Where did the images of the bus roof gardens come from?
Later j

[ACamper]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

They said they are being dropped into sewage ponds to filter the water for potable water. It is more of a common practice than you think and grey water is safer than poop water and easier to filter.

hmmm.. I would love to hear more about this. ? Links ? What kind of filterers ? what company ?

This would be a major break tru in filtering technology. Like a horse that flies. A Unicorn.

[simonsteve]

If you're conscious of the products you're using/putting into your grey water, you can directly use it to water plants. If there are large particles, maybe run it through a fine window screen, but any other carbon in the water will be broken down in the soil you construct. There's no need to disinfect it, plants won't care about bacteria, just make sure that you wash any food harvested from the garden. Seedlings will be more sensitive to changes in water quality, but they can be watered with a different source of water. It's likely too that if you're in an area where water is that scarce your greywater production may not meet the needs of the plants, which in that case a rain catchment system like Chris said would be needed.

It's also important to remember that soil is heavy, especially if it is saturated. Green roofs on buildings use special aggregates often made of expanded shale that are light weight while still able to hold some water. I would think the bus ribs could support a natural soul but it would be something to consider. Or maybe blocking up the frame to give your suspension a rest.

There a no municipalities that recycle your wastewater directly to drinking water. Orange county thought about maybe trying it at a small scale but decided not too. The closest you get to drinking wastewater is if a plant discharges their effluent into a surface water that is also used for drinking water. Either way though, waste water effluent doesn't have sewage in it. Sometimes its cleaner than the body of water it is discharged into. The WI wastewater operators association even has a beer brewing competition where the water used is plant effluent.
My experience is coming from a degree in waste resources and having worked at 2 treatment plants.