Re: Dirty Water

> Glad I live in Canada where grey water went into a bathtub outside the 
> kithen window and was used for the garden.  (Summer time only) Find it so 
> difficult to believe you are not allowed to do this in the USofA.  How 
> could you be stopped?
> Ginny in Prince George BC -


Ginny, it all depends on where you live.  The Environmental 
Protection Agency, as well as local governments, have certain 
building codes and rules.  In the case of the house we built on our 
Oregon ranch, which was in an area of few people and lots of land 
and cattle, we had to install a septic drainage system according to 
the number of rooms and potential inhabitants of the house.  We 
had five bedrooms and three baths, so our septic drainfield had to 
be quite extensive.  An inspector came and approved it before we 
could have a backhoe cover it up.  However, when we asked the 
plumbing inspector about diverting the grey water into a ditch rather 
than running all water into the septic tank, he gave verbal approval, 
as the soil was the type that would filter it before finally seeping into 
the spring and stream which flowed off our land down to the river.

In our area, we had only about 18 inches of precipitation a year, 
mostly in the form of winter snow and spring rain.  Summers were 
hot and dry.  Once in my memory, it got below -30° F. during a 
severe winter.

If you live in a rural area, where draining wash water or other grey 
water into a storage container wouldn't be noticed, many people do 
it.  In a town or city, such variances from the code and rules would 
never be allowed by the bureaucrats, the excuse being fear of 
contamination.

Barbara Davis       now southwest of Fort Worth, TX

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