creative ways to deal with gray water
long story,but heres the short version.have a petition to get city to run main sewer line, but may take 6months to 2 yrs. meanwhile my septic tank is about had,starting to back up around tank lid. so i’m going to drain the shower and washer into sump pump, then pump up out of basement to a 200 gal tank.all i can think of is to haul to somwhere that i can dump into a sewer or put hose on it and walk around and water my trees with it.reason i’m not putting new laterials in is cost is around 5,000 then when city comes in they cut the laterials and make you hook to sewer [city sewer cost 10k] i’m just kinda lost on what to do to help elimanate some water around here. i’m thinking a little blue plastic outhouse don’t sound to bad thanks and as always -overbudget
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Replies
Run some of those constant drip irrigation hoses off of the plastic tank.
That should empty the tank on a constant basis.
Who knows, your lawn may like it so much, you decide to keep it.
; )
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
It is easy to be friends with someone you always agree with.
If you want to find out more about "graywater" type same into google and WOW!
More than you can read...best no BS sites are .GOV & .EDU...the rest must ne sorted out from the sellers and scam artists.
Remember that a gallon of H20 weighs about 8 pound so that littl ol' 200 gallon tank weighs about 1600 pound.....tough to pick up and haul to a disposal site.
Graywater does not keep.....it is loaded with bacteria from the bodies that shower (and pee in the shower) plus all the body oils, perspiration, skin cells, hair, dandruf, and skidmarks removed from clothing in the washing machine.
In 24 hours the concentration of bacteria will over 10 fold and the tank will smell very funky.....next day will be worse as the tank goes anerobic. The use of gray water in an irrigation system is difficult as the detritis will clog pores and small emiter orfices rather quickly.
Reduction of odor formation may be accomplished by mechanical areation. Could purchase a 500 gal septic aerator and have it set at your back door and pump into that. $$$$
There are elaborate systems to be found in the literature...but they require lots of maintenanace and are not a good choice for your short term goals.
Check your local/state health codes....some places (less & les every week) allow surface disharge of graywater provided there is sufficient land area for it's absorption and areobic degradation. In other locals it is forbidden by law and the graywater must be piped to the septic system...private or municipal.
I live in the country on 110 acres....I would let it run down the forest hill my house sits in. Mother nature will take care of it very nicely. But your situation is probably different.
..............Iron Helix
pee should not introduce any bacteria, unless a bacterial urinary tract infection is brewing. Not that I'm advocating using the shower as a urinal, too much splash--the sink works better.Edit to add. You may have been entirely aware that healthy urine is sterile, but is a feast for all of those Nirtrogen Cycle critters. Bacteria "needs no introduction," as it were. So I correct myself. Was thinking I probably didn't read your intentions correctly.
Edited 4/6/2005 9:38 am ET by basswood
sinks may have less splash,but i'm only 5'7 so the shower is much handier!!! them 36 high urnials are a pain....hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
i didn't relieze it would go funky so fast. as far as pumping it and hauling it off [ i have a 4" cleanout out my shop so i thought i could just throw a hose in it and drain the tank]i would just put a tank on a trailer and fill it then haul it off next morning.i will hit google and see what i get thanks larryhand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
You need to do some research on this.
It is doable,but gray water stored for even a short period turns septic-black- and
could cause you problems,both personal and legal.
Lots of info though.
Don't know how big your lot is, but we used to water our 50 X 100' garden with grey water. Only used the showers, washer and tub water, no lavatory sinks at all. The veggies loved it. I've seen systems using a HP pump and a sprinkler system. You'd have to make sure that there was no material from the washer to clog the sprinkler.
If you're going to store gray water for any length of time, you need to vigorously aerate it, and deal with the bioslime and solids which will result. An aquarium pump won't be enough to keep a 200 gal tank from getting very stinky- you need a considerable flow of air to keep this from going anaerobic.
For a time we pumped the laundry water up to our rain water storage barrels for garden irrigation but we stopped- the effort to keep the resulting mixture "sweet" via aeration was ultimately more bother than the water was worth to us.
IMHO as soon as you start to talk about storing greywater, and greywater turning into something funky when stagnant or not under mechanical supervision, you drift into what amounts to a septic system. These septic systems are well evolved. They have been around for hundreds of years in some cases. Essentially they are, when well designed, installed and maintained, simple low energy machines and relatively environmentally benign. Why reinvent the wheel? They greywater systems I think are most effective are simple arrangements. But sometimes, those people who have septic systems that are under what they want to keep green, an effective greywater system is already in place.
Pump the septic tank every 6 months for two years.
First of all, why is your septic tank backing up? Incurred similar problem & upon having a company come to clean it out, replace fill lines, etc., the problem existed only because someone had flushed about 40 sanitary items down the commode. These things having a plastic coating prevented the water from exiting into the fill line thus creating the back-up! Those companies who advertise flushable sanitary items are a real nit with me! It does not work with septic tanks!
Do hope this might be the cause of your problem as it is a quick fix & continues to work well. Now, if I can just get around to restoring my rock border for wooded island which I had moved so the equipment would not destroy my rocks! Another day & another task! But water is flowing smoothly!
In some places, it is legal to dump washing machine water right on the ground. Did this for years before I got a drywell for it. The plants like it.
Actually, digging a small drywell to handle just washing machine and shower water may be an option for you, depending upon your soil conditions. May not be legal though.