[ca-gw] SF Greywater Ordinance to require permits for single system voted down by Building Inspectors Commission

[elizabeth dougherty]

I am quite relieved to report that the Building Inspectors Commission voted
not to pass the SF proposed greywater ordinance at today's meeting.  They
received approx. 80  informative and well written letters (including three
blog posts) in the last week, and were strongly influenced by the
information they received.  There was also an article in SFGate today on
this by Kelly Zito.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/21/MNF31A8ATN.DTL

It helped that the Building Inspectors Commission President, Mel Murphy, put
in his own illegal graywater system (with a holding tank - D'OH!!) at least
15 years ago! 

FYI that the vote was with a suggestion that Steven Panelli come back with a
more informed ordinance, if at all, so we are probably not done yet.  We'll
work with the plumbing inspectors to educate them and support correctly
designed and plumbed graywater systems.

The SFPUC should be commended for coming up with the compromise of a pilot
program for washing machine greywater systems, in the case it was not
overturned.  It was a great stop-gap and educational option that is not
needed (for the moment), if I understand correctly.
For more info on this SFPUC proposed pilot project or to say thanks, contact
Rosey Jencks: rjencks at sfwater.org

Please take a moment to write a thank you note to the Building Inspectors
Commission, as they listened to YOU:
President Mel Murphy, Building Inspector Commission
C/o Ann Aherne: ann.aherne at sfgov.org (she'll make sure every commissioner
gets a copy)

You can CC:
steven.panelli at sfgov.org - Steve Panelli, Chief Plumbing Inspector
rjencks at sfwater.org - Rosey Jencks of the SFPUC's stormwater program
Astrid.Haryati at sfgov.org - Mayor's director of greening
Vivian.Day at sfgov.org  - Head of DBI
Mark.Palmer at SFGOV.ORG - Green Building Coordinator
Gavin.Newsom at sfgov.org - Mayor

Your participation in this issue directly impacted their decision.  Good
work, wise water users!

Best,
Elizabeth


³For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it
rain.² 
HW Longfellow
***********************************************************
elizabeth dougherty, phd
director, whollyh2o
sf bay area, ca
          
whollyh2o:                www.whollyh2o.org
norcal arcsa:            www.wiserearth.org/group/arcsanorcal
home page:              www.elizd.com