Updated: 7/10/2000

Greywater Systems
By: Ron George, CPD, President, Plumb-Tech Design & Consulting Services LLC
What is Greywater?
Greywater is water from the bath, shower, washing machine, or bathroom sink. Untreated rainwater collected in
cisterns can be considered greywater. It is of lesser quality than potable water
Potable water - is clean drinkable water.
Black water - is soiled waste flushed from toilets. Black water also includes the waste from the kitchen sink,
garbage disposal and dishwasher. These fixtures are usually considered blackwater fixtures because of the high
concentrations of organic waste.

Greywater Uses
Greywater is not used for all water uses. It is most suitably used for subsurface irrigation of non-edible landscape
plants. Greywater could supply most, if not all the irrigation needs of a home landscaped with vegetation of a
semiarid region. Along with its application to outside irrigation, and with proper settling basins and filters,
greywater can be used in some situations for toilet flushing. Another form of greywater is the collection of
rainwater in a cistern for reuse as greywater or if proper treatment and filtering is used, a cistern can supply a
potable water supply to a building. A cistern is simply a storage tank for rainwater with a pump for extracting the
water. In hilly areas a cistern can be located on a hill above the building or residence and no pump is needed.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Greywater
The most obvious advantage of greywater is that it replaces a significant percentage of potable water. If greywater is
used on vegetation, potable water is saved or conserved. Greywater use is not used as much as it should be because
of lack of knowledge about the systems and initial system costs.
Not only does greywater use on landscaping conserve potable water; it may actually be better for the plants.
Greywater use often results in more vigorous vegetation. Greywater may contain detergents with nitrogen or
phosphorus, which are plant nutrients. It may also contain sodium and chloride, which can be harmful to some
sensitive species of plants.

Diminished sewer flows from domestic greywater use may have a negative effect on building sewers and public
sewer systems. With the recent legislation for reduced flow fixtures, the water closets alone will not have the
volume of water needed to transport the waste to the sewers. The blackwater system would lose the normal
drainline carry or washing of the building sewer from the greywater fixtures. Most water closets are designed to
meet the drainline carry test of 40 feet. Beyond 40 feet the low consumption toilets rely on other fixtures to flush
the waste down the drain. Some officials fear this situation will result in insufficient sewer flows to carry waste to
the sewer plant. Officials also have voiced concern that with increased use of greywater, less effluent will be
available for treatment resulting in less reclaimed water for municipal uses. This potentially would be a problem for
a community that mandates greywater systems. Further research may be needed before we know the answer to this
issue.
Greywater Systems Vary
Greywater systems vary from simple low-cost systems such as a rain barrel at a downspout to highly complex and
costly treatment, pumping and filtration systems.
Many local codes are silent when it comes to greywater systems. Other areas vary from requiring extensive
backflow prevention to not allowing the systems at all.
Greywater recycling systems are commercially available. The more sophisticated greywater systems treat greywater
prior to disposal to reduce groundwater contamination and surface ponding problems. Some of these systems are
able to remove pollutants and bacteria from greywater. The better systems include settling tanks and sand filters.
Improvements in technologies and system innovations regularly occur.

Cisterns
Updated: 7/10/2000
King Mesha was ruler of the small kingdom of Moab, East of the Dead Sea, in the mid-ninth century BC.
He thought cisterns were a good idea. So good, in fact, that he had his servants record his edict on the matter in a
text called the Moabite Stone. King Mesha wrote, "I made two reservoirs in the midst of Qerkhah. Now there was no
cistern in the city, so I said to all the people, `Make you every man a cistern in his house'."
The king did not invent the cistern he just codified it. Cisterns had been around for at least 2,000 years before he
decided to chisel his orders in stone. Evidence of rainwater collection systems in J ordan dates back to at least
3,000BC.
Recent droughts have caused many wells to dry up in the southwest parts of the United States. A recent example is
a rancher in a remote part of Texas. He purchased a 10,000-gallon cistern to collect rainwater for re-use as a potable
water supply. The rainwater collection system turned out to be less expensive than drilling a deeper well and
changing the pump. His existing well was drilled to more than 450 feet had long been dry. And water had to be
trucked in to a small storage tank. The water table was almost 1,500 feet below the surface. He could have spent a
considerable amount of money drilling a deep well. He chose to spend about the same amount of money on a
cistern and a rainwater collection system.

As the water supplies diminish and grow increasingly strained, cisterns are providing a low-cost way to provide
drinking water for remote and dry areas.

Cisterns small reservoirs are now mandatory in new construction in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Bermuda. I heard
that the State of California offers tax credits for cisterns.

I also read where several European countries offer financial incentives for rainwater collection. According to
construction news reports, the World Bank has financed the construction of cisterns in China and Egypt.

Dry and arid parts of the world, where fresh water is scarce, are increasingly mandating greywater systems out of
necessity. If the conditions warrant, the engineer should ask the owner if they would like to consider the long term
benefits of a greywater system during the schematic design phase of a project.