Where, exactly, is that greywater collection system?
There is value in being able to stop by the build site almost every day. The plan for this week was to finish the underslab rough-in plumbing and be ready to pour the slab on Monday. Not so fast my friend!
The plumber did his thing and was awaiting a building inspector when I stopped by Wednesday evening. Upon my review, I noticed that there was only one drain system, just like a conventional home. As the most causal reader of this blog knows, however, we aren't building a conventional home. OUR plan calls for segregation of "black" water from "grey' water (i.e. toilets, kitchen sink, dishwasher etc. separate from showers, tubs and laundry) so that in drought-like times we can treat the greywater and keep landscaping, garden and orchard alive. This water conservation technique hasn't been considered much in East TN because of the amount of rain we get in normal times. Have you noticed...these are not normal times! Although we do not plan to install a greywater treatment system now (due to budgetary constraints), we DO plan to have the segregated piping installed in the floor and walls to make future treatment easily available. When/if climate change driven prolonged drought comes to Tennessee, we'll be ready.
Our builder is now in contact with the County inspector to get them on-board with our plans. The inspector has NEVER encountered greywater collection so we'll have a few days delay while he figures out what to be alert to and/or concerned about. This is but one example of the type delays we expect. This is why, when the builder says 6 or 7 months to build, we've assumed 9 or 10. We don't want to rush past the opportunities to build it right! Remember the old addage; "GOOD, FAST, or CHEAP; pick any two"! We'll go with Good and Cheap, not fast. Sooooo... we take a few days delay; let the plumber rework the drain lines and the County get comfortable with it all. We can wait.
There are lots of resources on the web about this stuff, mostly originating the the arid Southwest (California and Arizona). One such resource can be found here: http://www.greywater.com/synopsis.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment