L977 RAIN page 9 Effective rpater conser\ation m€asures at Fdrallones reduce y.or1, Tt per pe-rson by.almost 9O percent, resulting in less u.aste.Itow Jor 35 people than tbat produced by o ionrrn_ :?f:.,-:1!r!b"n Jamily. A by-product is tbe coicentmtion of pouutants ,n greyuater and tbe need to deaelop reclamatioi systems for concentrated. uasteznater. Tbe folllwing account of Farallones efforts to d,eaelop suctt nrigiiiiilooa-sized t!-:t-:T,i: excerpted frorn tbe 1977 Farfrlones Report (g2 Irom Ibe l.'arallones Institute, 15290 Coleman Villey Road, Occidental, CA 95465)..The report contains reports on oarious c,urrent projects, including a 1OO percent solar'heated greenbouse,.a compa_rison stud'y on thiee solarci,orilnroref ,ou,inr, an update on tbe Farallo.nes compost prioiies, a comparison t"!:!"y ?[r:lk,cins grass tawns wiih att'atfa and iabbii produc_ Lton ancl mucb more. i I t '1|l NO DROUGHTABOUT IT reusrng wastewater at Farallones Or.rr preiiminary assessment of greywater was somewhat naive. (Greywater rs defined as household waste water from sinks, !ullry, shower and bath; it does not incluje dir.h;;g;-i;;rn flushing a_toilet.) Ir was assumed that eliminating toiGt - ---- flushings from the wasre srream would reduce the level of contamination, and the remaining waste water would be easier and safer ro deal with. Thiiviewpoint ls fort.r.J Uy practically.every proponent of the waterless toilet, and so it was a rela^riv^ely easy trap for us all to fall into. efi.r a y.a.- and, a half of working with greywater, we realize that the proolem rs much more complex and will require a longer term investigative effort. . It is hard to generalize on the characteristics of greywater, because th.ey. depend so much on individual f".torrl iif. .tyt., water use habits and environmental consciousness level. Each area of the house gcnerates a waste water with different ool_ tutants. The kitchen sink produces rhe mosr heavily pottrlteA water., containing detergenrs, grease, oils and food pirticler The shower water contiins a riinimal amount of srispendeJ matrer but is most contaminated biologically with trace amounrs of fecal mater porenrially har6oring pathogenic organisms. Our initial studies have concentrated on the development of a cost-effectivt:, small scale wastewater management system *:p,l:9 ,".rlf se.$reywater for agriculturat p'urposes. The probproblems of di.;tribution, irrigation and filtrition have been the focus of our eftorrs. Furure itudies dealing *i,f, ,n. biolosical and chemical makeup of greywater and rh"e effects .;;;J";;; ptant growrh are being developed. Irrigation -Distribution When the Rural Center started in the summer of 1975 our first thought in this dry part of California was ro ger rhe wasre water tothe garden for reuse. We tried to develop"a ryrr.* --- with a minimum amount of physical treatment, maintenance and energy input. We had no established criteria for sizing the treatment units, so our approach was empirical. a syiem using 50 gallon drums was decided upon b.cause rhe drums ' 1e ;.fcan, warerrighr.and a readily available salvage ."__oaity. I heorerrcally, various size waste flows could b"e handled by adding or deleting drum units ro a sysrem, in parallel or -Max Kroschel in series as needed. Semi rigid black plastic tubing purchased in quantity on sale 'ras ur.i exclusively for cond"ucring greywater. It is joined by clamps and friction fittings "nd ii Jasy to work with, as it requires nb special tools or skills. . . 9rr first system was a straight line from the house and kitchen to 50-gallon drums in ihe garden, where we distributed it by hand using five-gallon cans. Tiis labor intensive and time consuming metho-d also proved to be aesthetically un_ pleasant. After a month or so accumulate d grease and settled food particles in the drums wenr septic (anierobic) and we gained a better appreciation for gr.y,r"t.. and its nearest relative, raw sewage. . .Geography worked against us in the development of our next irrigation system. The kitchen is situated below most of the garden. Only a small flat patch can be reached by gravity flow; and that only !f a 1r11ma]ly sloped pip. ini't lring, ihe ),,!/arer to the garden with little or no veloiity or pressure. We decided to cultivate and.irrigate a forage crop onthe parch 11.S-rra;n accessible by gravity- ilow and irivestigate the pbssi_ ?jll:t :, a windmill ro pyTp rhe warer to sto.ag. at a higher elevarion so thar it could be used more extensivlly in rh! garden. Because of the septic narure of the greywiter, the irrigation system needed io be subsurfr.". d..fo."t. d 3/4,, black plastic tubing was. placed under a heavy mulch layer on top gf 1n intensively. culiivated bed. Grease and suspenied sohds clogged rhe rubes and they had to be flushed out period_ ically with hot water-a.time-consuming and wastefut proceaure . Conventional leach fields u.se Iarge diameter perforated pipe in a gravel-filled rrench. An adaptation of this idea was triei' alongside of a permanent bed oi asparagus. To take advantage of on-hand materials we used " triang.rl"", redwood culvert consrructed of scrap boards in a gravil-lined trench 6,, wide and 1.0" deep and covered with s-od. Because of the minimal velocity of the grey warer reaching the culvert, distribution of the water was rot very eve n along"the bed. However, some water did reach the end, and this'system is currently in use, In the summer of 1976 a settling tank was added to remove most suspended and floating solids. To utilize this less con_ ::::':::q1.,", an irrigation.ling..of t,' perforated tubing sur_ rounded by-pea gravel irt a 4,'x4,, trench was installed "iong " permanent forage ciop bed. If this type of distribution ,urr?rn
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