Need info on gray water systems

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Need info on gray water systems

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

My father is considering a gray water system. Soil is clay. Water table is shallow. (A posthole is full before completed, well is 100ft and the garden hose has accidently run continously for 48 hours) There are several drainage ditches on the property (16 acres), which keeps the area from being soggy. It ajoins a state wetlands area. Dad wants to run everything but the commode to an area below the garden. He has been told that gravel in no longer needed around or in the underground drainage, just use 18in or larger drain culvert in the field area. The well that feeds the house is about 75 yards from where he wants the gray water to empty. The current septic tank is located about 50 feet from the well. Water tests are good. He has also been told that a large pit with a couple of dump truck loads of gravel would work. Should the pit be covered with soil? Will any of these work in clay soil? Is the field to close to the well? Will it create a stinking lagoon? Water consumtion is low. Two or three short showers per day, four loads of laundry per week, dishes handwashed once per day. Don't worry about building permits, he has never told the county what he is doing in the 25 years he has lived there!

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), September 12, 2000

Answers

Most graywater systems are installed since water is scarce and its reuse is needed for watering plants or gardens. In your situation it sounds like it would be of little extra value to you. Even if you had to have the septic tank pumped every ten years or so, it seems like it would be a cheaper alternative.

Most of your graywater would come from your washing machine. You might consider obtaining some 1 1/2" PVC pipe. In the floor next to the washer drill a hole just slightly larger than 1 1/2" and mount a length of pipe through the hole and up the wall next to the washer. Under the structure put in a elbow to bring the pipe to the outside wall, then bury it to a drain pit. For a drain pit, it you buried a 55-gallon plastic barrel without a bottom upright, fill it almost full of gravel, and then drained your washing machine into it, it should work indefinitely.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 15, 2000.

Hi, Terri,

I'm going to copy a post I just answered, three or four posts down in "water" section:

I would recommend just letting the grey water flow out onto a hillside. At my old house, mine used to run to a flat area, which caused a really smelly swamp to form. I rerouted it, and the food scraps, (those that weren't cleaned off into the compost, y'know) settled out on the hillside, and the water ran on down the hill to water the forest.

Two caveats: if you're a carnivore, don't do this with your kitchen sink water. My neighbor, who is a carnivore, did it, and he had a 15 by 25' area covered with what looked like bacon grease, covered with flies and yellow jackets (aka meat bees, aka Mckenzie bees, aka ground bees) BAd news. The water from lavatories, showers, bathtubs, clothes washers, etc. should be fine.

Many folks around here get their plumbing inspected, then, before covering it, they do a little "alteration", and separate the above mentioned drains from the one leading to the septic tank. It's wise to have the two now separate drain pipes aligned in such a way that you could connect them later, if someone wanted to.

Your septic system will last for a jillion times longer without all the water from these aforementioned appliances going to it, by the way. In fact, it is possible to put in about 25% as much drainfield this way.

I tried the hole with a couple of loads of gravel in it. Total waste of time and money. The small amount of food scraps, and hair from the shower, and so forth, plugged up the gravel right at the end of the pipe after a very short time. I suspect that if might have worked better if I'd put in a small tank like a septic tank, to let solids settle, and floaters float, with the drain coming out in between the solids and the floaters.

Good luck! JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), October 01, 2000.



-- (stinky@pot.com), July 01, 2001


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