[Strawbale] rainwater catchment for toilets?

[Erica Konrad]

Thanks all for the great advice - this listserve is so helpful.

We will keep our rainwater separate from potable. We are going to have one 
sink which will drain directly into our cistern, dedicated to washing 
vegetables and rinsing dishes (washed with phosphate free detergent) to make 
sure we'll never run out of water for toilets and irrigation. This way we 
need no backflow preventors and no reason to connect our domestic water to 
our rainwater cistern. Hopefully this will satisfy the inspector on Monday. 
We'll keep you posted with our discussion with Nelson City Council on green 
home building.
Mike

Erica Konrad/Mike Bowick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Tom" <ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca>
To: "Erica Konrad" <strawbale at netidea.com>; <STRAWBALE at listserv.repp.org>
Cc: "SB Yahoos" <sb-r-us at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: rainwater catchment for toilets?


> On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:42:31 -0400, Erica Konrad <strawbale at netidea.com> 
> wrote:
> [apologies in advance for un<snip>pedness for the purpose of 
> cross-posting]
>
>> We are currently building our strawbale home in Nelson, BC and our local
>> municipality will not let us use our rainwater catchment system (buried
>> rainwater cistern) to feed our toilets.  The plan is to use it for
>> irrigation and toilets.
>>
>> Our building inspector thinks we're ahead of the curve yet his concern 
>> is a backflow preventor at some point will fail and contaminate City 
>> water.
>> Existing infrastructure and policy does not allow for rainwater 
>> catchment to be cross connected with City water.
>>
>> Does anyone know any municipalities in Canada that allow this, so that I 
>> can take it to Council as an example? Any advice?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Erica
>>
>> Erica Konrad/Michael Bowick
>> Box 314, New Denver, BC
>> V0G 1S0
>
>
>
> Erica;
>
> In the rural areas and villages of the Ayr/Paris/Woodstock (SW Ontario) 
> triangle (Oxford, Brant, Waterloo counties) where I used to live, almost 
> every (older) home had a rainwater cistern in the basement and that water 
> was used not only for feeding the toilets,  but everything else as well.
>
> (I'd tell you the "cat tea" story of the time a veterinary 
> student/girlfriend from Univ of Guelph was visiting for the weekend with 
> her cats and a new one, being freaked-out by my dog, disappeared... and 
> upon doing a search of the house, discovered a carcase at the bottom of 
> the cistern (from which I had been drinking/washing all winter)... and 
> when I reached down with a spade to bring the carcase up, it "melted" as 
> soon as it broke the surface and oozed back into the depths from whence it 
> came ... whereupon future veterinarian "oor-r-r-rp"ed, covered mouth and 
> quickly disappeared up the basement stairs (we eventually found her cat... 
> alive) ... but it might gross some people out so I won't)
>
> In all the time that I lived in that farmhouse, I don't recall ever being 
> sick.
>
> But we were all on private wells, as opposed to a municipal water system 
> so the concerns about contamination would not have applied. Nevertheless, 
> unless well-people are a completely different species from municipal water 
> people, the health issues/concerns should be the same, from a 
> non-bureaucratic POV.
>
> Aside from (besides ?) trying to contact the health authorities on those 
> counties, you might download CMHC's "Rainwater Harvesting and Grey Water 
> Reuse"  publication
>
> https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/b2c/b2c/init.do?language=en&shop=Z01EN&areaID=0000000037&productID=00000000370000000003
>
> and contact the CMHC staff who oversaw the project. They might be able to 
> provide some insights into and assistance with dealing with the 
> bureacratic resistance that you're encountering.
>
> And if the biggest problem is the potential failure of a backflow 
> preventer, then it would seem that the simple solution is to eliminate the 
> BP by having dedicated, positive-valved, one-way lines w/ pump from the 
> cistern to the water closets and outdoor hose bibbs.
>
>
> -- 
> === * ===
> Rob Tom
> Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> < A r c h i L o g i c  at   C h a f f Y a h o o  dot  C a  >
> (winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply)
>
>
>
> -- 
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