[ca-gw] Currents of Grey Water Support

[Steve Bilson]

Thanks for the update.  

 

If you folks haven't done it yet at least once, send something thoughtful to
Mr. Rowland, and help your elected officials to do the same.  This is a
perfect example of "weight" ruling the day.  How we the people use water is
being decided right now.

 

As for laundry detergents, ReWater recommends using any liquid over any
powdered detergent.  Powdered detergents are full of salt, which has
negative ions that draw dirt off fabric.  But salt is bad for soil and plant
life.  Liquids use enzymes to draw the dirt off.  Sure, some liquids are
better than others, but they are all better than powders.

 

From: ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org
[mailto:ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] On Behalf Of Linda Nave
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 4:31 PM
To: ca-standard at graywater.org
Subject: [ca-gw] Currents of Grey Water Support

 

Hello Fellow Water Watchers,  Thought I'd share currents of grey water
support:

Email Campaign:

After our stakeholders meeting last Feb- I got together with a group of nine
friends and we started an email campaign calling for all to send an email to
James Rowland in support of simple residential grey water systems.

An interesting virtual trail: One of my emails was to a green builder, who
emailed it to a dynamo of a woman who also happens to be the wife of one of
our County Supervisors. One of her emails was to a water enthusiast, who
emailed to a citizens group, The Marin Water Coalition, who in turn emailed
the call for action to thier list- including me, of course not realizing
they were sending it home again, home again, jiggdy jig.  

Several of these letters along with two personal letters from me were
emailed to another of our Marin County Supervisors- he called me last week
and now has his staff preparing a letter to send to James Rowland, as well.

Action Groups:

After a conversation with SPAWN, a Salmon Protection group in my area, they
emailed a grey water action alert to their email list.  Sustainable Fairfax
(a group in a local town) has a very nice call to action in their latest
emailed newsletter.

Fire Department:

I emailed my local Fire Department asking if they could support grey water
use in terms of Defensible Space- they were very enthusiastic- but I can't
tell if they actually sent out a letter to Mr. Rowland.  Perhaps some of you
are more acquainted with Calif. Fire Officials who could take a stance.
They clearly have weight in the code process as is evidenced in the WUI
codes. (WUI- Wildland Urban Interface)

Detergents:

I have approached my local grocery store about setting aside, and clearly
labeling a shelf of grey water friendly detergents.  They love the idea-
does anyone have a good vs. bad list I could use?  

I have grey watered my lush landscape via my washing machine for many years
without consequence.  When we decided to reuse the wash water in this manner
I began to experiment with how much detergent it takes to get the clothes
clean- the answer is very little.  Now that this will be legal I'll have to
find new ways to express my rebel streak!

Change I'd Like to See:

If I were able to add to Chapter 16- I'd call for a requirement for all new
residential construction to have dual pipe with diverter valves at the
Bathroom and Laundry that can be easily switched from inside the house- from
what I understand these switches already exist.  (I discussed this addition
with Mr. Bilson-he feels that BIA would squash it like bug- but I still like
the idea).

Innovation:

I do not think we should be afraid to require in the code- hardware that is
not easily available to date- look at Title 24. In Oct of 2007 Building
Dept's began enforcing the code requiring 50% of the wattage in kitchens to
be high efficacy- at that time we had very few interesting lighting choices,
by the summer of 2008 there were thousands of amazing choices.  If you
require it 'they' will build it..

Our email discussions:

I enjoy hearing what is going on in the world of water and hope that this
forum of discussion will continue to skip across the surface of
possibilities sending out intriguing ripples.  Thank you all. Hope to see
you 04/27!

As always- Be Well and Water Wise,

Linda Nave  LEED AP
CELL 415-716-8996

 

Residential Construction, Project Manager

Sandra Bird Designs
240 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur Ca 94939
Office 415-927-1171  Fax 415-945-9003


 

 

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