Texas Water Day: Rainwater and graywater harvesting

I was able to spend about an hour at Texas Water Day today, a day-long event at the Capitol o' Texas focused on water conservation. I missed all the speechifying but was able to stop in and chat with the booth people and complain about the size of the urinals at the capitol to random attendees (we're talking ginormous, at least the ones in the annex...). Sorry, no photos. Guys get freaked out when you're taking photos in the bathroom...

I was also able to chat with several folks about other important matters. The City of Austin conservation folks were there, and we yimmered and yammered about pressurized rainwater harvesting and graywater.

On the rainwater harvesting side, we discussed the requirements for reverse pressure zones (RPZs), licensed plumbers, and permits (things I'm not convinced are necessary for a system not even remotely connected to the city's system). The boothpeople told me that the city is considering exempting certain pressurized systems (say below 30 psi, quite a bit below the city's pressure) from the RPZ/licensed plumber/permit requirements. That would be a nice improvement. They're still scared of a fully pressurized system being accidentally or purposely connected to the city water and getting (insert ominous voice here) "water of unknown quality" in their system (of course someone purposely doing this would not be getting a permit to do so...). But I can see why they have concerns. Two fully-pressured systems on site increase the odds of someone screwing up, especially subsequent homeowners (and plumbers) that don't fully appreciate or understand the system.

We also talked about on-site graywater use. The boothers said that the city is in the process (any day now!) of revising those rules under a new "Laundry to Lawn" program where you can just run your waste laundry water out into your yard without the subsurface storage and drainfield requirements. Yippee!!! Too late for us (we didn't build in separate plumbing for graywater), but for subsequent graywater adopters, this is good news.

More about graywater:

       News article about graywater and rules use in Austin.

       City council resolution on graywater.

       Here's a proposal from the City's Graywater External Stakeholders Committee. 

       Some people have said "TO HELL WITH THE RULES!!!".
            They are the few, the proud, the Greywater Guerrillas.

I also ran into a pal I used to work with that is a turf expert, a subject she studied at Texas A and M. There's a lot of people I know that went to college and did nothing but grass, but this young lady truly went to college and studied nothing but grass! After talking about the house and landscaping (and getting reminded that she was a turf expert), she recommended Thunder Turf by Native American Seed. The bride and I have talked about using Habiturf, but it's expensive as hell. My turf-grrl friend said Thunder Turf was the way to go. She even texted me later: "Thunder Turf = Good Stuff".

Several weeks ago I was yapping at an event in Junction, Texas, and went to an after-event wine swig that turned out to be hosted by the proprietors of, you guessed it, Native American Seed! These folks live water conservation and even had their Texas Raincatcher Award, an award passed out by the Texas Water Development Board, proudly mounted on the wall in the living room. We drank wine and talked about grass, rainwater harvesting, and rain gardens. That, my friends, is a good evening (even without the wine).

Anyway, the universe seems to be lining up: THUNDER!!!  TURF!!!

The cool bit of swag I picked up at Texas Water Day was a shower timer from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality:

I've actually been wondering how long we (ahem...) I spend in the shower. Now I can do some timing! That old-skool grains-of-sand timer above allows five minutes for rub-a-dubbing.

Let the experiments begin!

Fifty Shades of Grey(water)

Nifty article in todays' newspaper about household greywater use, which is the on-site use of water from showers, bathtubs, washing machines, and sinks (although I've heard folks say that washing machine water is considered blackwater [like toilet water] because of the possibility of washing cloth diapers [and the occasion shart residue...]). We briefly considered using greywater at our new house, but the local codes are fierce and a real disincentive (only one permit has been given to do this in Austin). After hearing Rebecca Batchelder (she has that permit) speak at a function last fall about her efforts and the list of concerns, I completely marked grey off the list.

Greywater is "special" in that it tends to have higher salt content, so you have to worry about salt buildup when you use it for irrigation. And there are other nutrients to be concerned about as well. Let's say, hypothetically, you went to the zoo and a monkey named Nolan Ryan threw poop at you. When you go home to shower, all that poop you shower off (as well as the associated pathogens and [possible] residual steroids) goes into your greywater system. Yuck. This is why I don't go to the zoo (or baseball games)...

There are statements in the article about water being wasted if it's allowed to go down the drain, a pet peeve of mine (the statement bit, not the drain bit). Water that goes into the sewer is treated and may show up in the parks downtown (if you see purple pipes and hardware, that's treated wastewater [don't drink from that bubbler!]). And some of it goes back into the river ("return flows"), supplementing environmental flows and perhaps providing water supplies downstream (40 percent of Houston's water supply from the Trinity River is from return flows from Dallas and Fort Worth). In short, water that goes down the drain is not wasted. I suppose you could make a lifecycle argument about why it's better to treat greywater onsite rather than in a centrally located plant, but that water ain't wasted. As they say in Dallas: "Flush twice: Houston needs the water!"

The article mentions "pricey devices". They're talking about a backflow preventer, sometimes referred to as an RPZ (reverse pressure zone). One of these suckers costs $500 700 or so to buy and install and $50 to $100 to inspect annually. An RPZ keeps water from your side of the water line from moving into the city's system if the city's system loses pressure. An RPZ is also required for pressurized rainwater harvesting systems.

The RPZ requirement drives rainwater and greywater harvesters nuts. Even if your rainwater or greywater system is completely separate from the city supply, the city wants an RPZ at your house. As a gravelly voiced rainwater radical once told me (I call him the "Godfather of Texas Rainwater Collection"), swimming pools are a greater threat to water supply than rainwater tanks based on how many pools he sees with a hose plopped in 'em (during a pressure loss in the city system, it could suck that pool water into the distribution lines;  I sure hope Timmy didn't pee in the pool!).

Speaking of RPZs, here's one I saw Saturday in South Austin:

Purdy! If you see one of these babies in someone's front yard, there's a pressurized rainwater system (and grumpy rainwater harvester) nearby!