Information needed re: gray water disposal

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I am possibly planning to move to Nevada in the near future. This will entail moving a trailer onto a lot where I will have access to well water and city electric utilities but there is no city sewer and the price for a septic is out of my range at present. I am planning to use a composting toilet and will need to make some sort of arrangements for gray water (dish water, showers, etc).

Could someone please point me in the right direction for garnering information that might help me with this problem? I cannot possibly afford a septic for quite awhile to come . . . . so I would need to know about diverting the gray-water, do I need to filter it before using in the garden, etc.?

Any help your readers can give me would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Thanks.

-- (wolflady1000@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001

Answers

Here before you get hooked up to elec utilities you have to have your septic inspected and approved by the health dept. We have very lax inspections but gray water has to go into a septic system. Check before you move in.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), December 09, 2001.

that will depends on the laws there. Some places consider all waste water go to a spetic,, some do not, Check first. If not,,, you can dump right on the ground,,away from your well. but if you want to filter,, a bucket with holes in the bottom,, half filled with gravel will work

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 09, 2001.

Out the door and over the hill. More action and less talk about it. Grandma tossed the dishwater out the back door for 70 years and nobody was harmed.

-- Ed Copp (OH) (edcopp@yahoo.com), December 09, 2001.

Check out the threads under the Waste Disposal/Septic category as there have been discussions on gray water there. A lot will depend on what the building regulations for your area require. If they will accept a composting toilet, tank and leach lines requirements may be less. If you are forced to go to a tank, you may be able to just keep the lid removed and dip out water for the garden with a five gallon bucket on a rope.

On your other question, the gray water would not need to be filtered first. Bleach from a washer would be diluted.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 09, 2001.


Oh Ed, I had to laugh, but it's true, here in our 120 year old farmhouse the gray water literally goes over the side of the hill and down across the horse pasture, and has been like that for as long as there was indoor plumbing, works fine and there is no smell at all, just plenty of green grass in the horse pasture where it spreads out.

The toilet only goes to the septic tank, all other water goes out over the hill ( I never put any kind of grease down the drains). And no, we do not have any form of zoning regulating this, we live in the boondocks of SE OH, even the banks don't care when you buy a house what or where the gray water is handled, as long as toilet water goes into a septic tank, leach beds are optional.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 09, 2001.



Mine went over the hill too...until it froze up last winter and shut me down "cold". This summer I dug a short ditch (10 feet) and added gravel, then topped it with a piece of tin and covered it with dirt. The gray water goes in one end and through the gravel to the soil below ground. Seems to work fine so far.

-- Stan Whisman (okstan@swbell.net), December 10, 2001.

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