[Strawbale] rainwater catchment for toilets?

[Erica Konrad]

dear all, thanks for the input. we put out that e-mail before we had done 
all the research - we definitely don't want blackwater. looks like we'll be 
using the cistern for landscaping and that's it.
erica

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Roemer & Glenn Miller" <roemiller at infostations.net>
To: <strawbale at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Strawbale] rainwater catchment for toilets?


>
>
> Erica,
>
> Echoing Kathryn's post:
>
> A basic rule of thumb is to never store greywater, for that very reason.
>
> Why not just run your sinkwater out to your garden for direct irrigation?
>
>
>
> Don't store blackwater, period.  You'll have such stinky and growing
> problems, and the constant of cleaning the sand filter that you'll wish
> you'd done it differently.  If you read Art Ludwig's work on greywater
> drains, you'll be aware of why nearly all blackwater systems fail to
> distribute water to the landscape over time and are abandoned.  I'd
> recommend his work and Brad Lancaster's Rainwater Harvesting (see his site
> below for lots of info):
>
> http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/
>
> You might also investigate a Watson Wick as a means of bio-filtering
> blackwater to a harvestable crop. (There have been a couple of Watson 
> Wicks,
> thanks Tom Watson, at Black Range Lodge in New Mexico for years, but they
> don't have to contend with codes.  The wicks there take kitchen sink as 
> well
> as toilet blackwater from flushing, not just from a private residence, but 
> a
> lodge at which a number of people are accommodated. Yes, kitchen drain 
> water
> and toilet water are BOTH blackwater.)  A biofiltering wick approaches the
> other end of the spectrum - how to use the black water after it's
> contaminated rather than how to reuse the greywater in a cascade of uses
> progressively less demanding - see Ludwig's work for the latter.  One of 
> the
> wicks at Black Range produces unusual bamboo which is sold at a good 
> profit.
> We water a perennial garden with ours.  A Watson wick includes 
> infiltrators
> of the type used in septic leach fields and works very well.  Ours has a
> diversion to our septic for winter rainy weather when we have over 60" of
> rain in five months.
>
> Google Watson Wick for lots of hits.
>
> Ludwig's wonderful site for reuse, storage, catchment, tank-making of all
> sorts:
>
> www.oasisdesign.net
>
> Best of luck,
>
> Barbara
>
>
>
>
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