By Alex Miller
The City of San Diego is taking one more step to make it easier for its residents to make use of graywater. Graywater is the waste water from laundry machines, showers, and faucets used to wash your hands, but not from toilets, dishwashers, or faucets that clean food. It is water that is still safe to use for purposes such as landscape irrigation. Unfortunately this water is normally sent to the sewer where it adds to the loads of treatment facilities, but slowly people in the community as well as in local and state government are awakening to the idea of reusing this water. In San Diego, where our water supply consumes massive amounts of energy to get pumped to us, this graywater can serve as a precious additional water source. At Hubbell & Hubbell Architects we have been involved in building projects that use this graywater since the California codes in 2010 laid out clear rules for how graywater systems can be legally constructed. Eventually these codes were adopted by the City of San Diego along with news that residents can follow a few simple rules to use graywater to water their gardens without having to obtain a permit. Now the City will also not require permits for residents to construct plumbing systems that make it more convenient and efficient to use this water. Permits for graywater systems using shower or hand washing faucets will also now be easier to obtain than it was previously.
If you are interested in reading more about the subject, here is a recent article from Paul Krueger at NBC 7:
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