[Greenbuilding] (sources on) graywater basics?

[Sacie Lambertson]

Reuben,  most communities don't allow the use of greywater for anything.

  That said, for years now we've redirected our shower, bidet and 
bathroom sink water to the outside where it runs in an open shallow 
trench slightly down hill to water various trees near the house.  We 
occasionally, once a year or so, dig a trench in another direction to 
redirect the water.   We use only ivory or similar neutral 
soaps.  We've never had a problem with this.  No smell or other 
negative effects.  I do clean out some hair in the area behind a rock 
where the waste water empties into the outdoors.  When we first 
started doing this we thought we might have to develop a more 
sophisticated system involving sand, mulch etc, but this works well, 
probably because it's so open.

The trench is basically a dip in the land, a couple of inches deep 
and twice as wide.  Two of us use this bathroom.  We can redirect the 
waste inside should we want to.  Used year around.  Temps dropped to 
a record 17 degrees last night here in NE Kansas.  Sacie