Re: SB: Greywater (was Regarding Sun Mar)

["Scott Willing" <willing@mb.sympatico.ca>]

An ejector is fine, and we're approved to use that here as well. It 
isn't just the fresh air and sunlight, but the microbes etc. in the 
top 18" of soil that are important for the breakdown and reuse of the 
organic components. Right now we're hauling our greywater out in slop 
buckets; same result in the end.

Problem is, for an ejector, you still need a place to gather 
greywater before it's pumped out periodically in batches. If that 
place is a septic tank, you either need sewage in it (doesn't happen 
if you have a composting toilet) or you need to bury it really, 
really deep. Otherwise it will freeze. Any sort of non-septic 
greywater holding tank has the same potential problem.

And you need a pump. I don't like systems requiring devices that (a) 
consume energy and (b) can fail, when -- at least theoretically -- 
there should be passive alternatives.

The search for the effective and earth-friendly cold-weather passive 
greywater handling system continues.

-=s



On 28 Aug 2002 at 10:13, Sherwood Botsford wrote:

> On Monday 26 August 2002 09:35 pm, Keith Rowe wrote:
> : Kim and I bought and used their largest model for a few years
> : when living in our trailer and building the house. Our thought
> : was that we would have a composting toilet and then a
> : separate, simple system for grey water. We would then save
> : money and, of course, be that much more environmentally
> : friendly...or so we thought.
> 
> 
> Here, if you are on 10 acres or more you can pump out the second side
> of the septic tank onto the ground.  This means  no septic field. 
> There are requirements about how far from the house, nearest creek,
> and property lines, but it can't be very great to fit on 10 acres. 
> This would be a very good system for greywater.
> 
> If, in addition to this, you put a a stack of strawbales at the 
> discharge pipe, the liquid would soak into the bales which would
> provide a lot of surface for bacteria to do their thing.
> 
> I'm surprised that this works, and doesn't end up contaminating 
> everything, but it seems that most of the harmful bacteria in 
> crap really don't like fresh air and sunlight.
> 
> My brother, who is a microbiologist, commented that it sounded 
> great until you get someone in the house who is a carrier for 
> hepatitis.  The discharge area should be fenced to keep out the 
> the dog and the kids.
> 
> -- 
> Sherwood Botsford				1-780-848-2881 Ext 134
> St. John's School of Alberta			RR - 5 Stony Plain, Alberta TZ7 
> 1X5
> Alternate address sgbotsford@yahoo . com
> 
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