Gray water, also spelled as grey water, is water that already has
been used domestically, commercially and industrially. This
includes the leftover, untreated water generated from clothes
washers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks.
Although still relegated largely to populated areas in such
water-challenged states as California, Arizona, Texas, and
Florida, water reuse is gaining ground in other areas. At the
same time, the focus of water reuse increasingly is shifting to
potable applications
Colorado was the last Western state to legalize greywater usage
in 2013. Officials say that by 2050, our water supply could
fall short for over one million people. … Colorado’s Water
Plan wants to close the gap and recognizes greywater as one
tool to help make that happen. However, not a single
state-approved greywater system has been built since it was
legalized.
Milpitas mayor Rich Tran is following up on a campaign promise
to do something about the bad odor that has drifted over the
city for decades. … The goal is to trace the source of the
stench, which residents have long suspected to come from the
Newby Island landfill, the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional
Wastewater Facility or the Zanker-owned recycling facility.
AquaCycl, a San Diego-based wastewater treatment startup, took
home the grand prize at the San Diego Angel Conference on March
15. … The company developed a technology that uses
electricity-generating bacteria to speed up wastewater
treatment rates, resulting in a more efficient, lower-cost
option.
After years of planning, the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary
District is gearing up to break ground on a three-year,
multimillion-dollar renovation of its sewage treatment plant.
Workers were rained out the past couple of months but are now
preparing the work site at the district headquarters at 300
Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael to replace the wastewater
treatment facilities and expand its recycled water capacity.
The announcement by Mayor Eric Garcetti last month that Los
Angeles will recycle all the wastewater produced at the
Hyperion plant by 2035 signals an end to the era of addressing
water shortages by importing water from far-flung places and
initiates a long-anticipated era of reusing locally available
supplies. The shift will require L.A. residents to understand
both the necessity of the plan and the technology that will
produce safe water.
NRDC is sponsoring legislation this year by Senator Hertzberg
and Senator Wiener (SB 332, the Local Water Reliability Act)
designed to help sustain water reliability and protect the
environment. … The bill challenges water supply agencies
and wastewater treatment plant operators to undertake a joint
effort to plan and implement a conservation and discharge
reduction strategy that reduces wasteful and polluting
discharges to the ocean by 95% in 20 years.
In 2014 Santa Monica embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. … The
switch has been accomplished through an extensive plan that
encompasses small measures like toilet replacements, household
rain harvest barrels and aggressive conservation to large
measures like cleaning up contaminated groundwater, capturing
street runoff and recycling water.
Too often, entrenched conflicts that pit water user against
water user block efforts to secure a sustainable, equitable,
and democratic water future in California. Striking a balance
involves art and science, compassion and flexibility, and
adherence to science and the law. Felicia Marcus is a public
servant unknown to many Californians. But as she concludes her
tenure as chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, we
owe her a debt of gratitude for consistently reaching for that
balance.
Redlands’ wastewater treatment facility needs $40 million in
upgrades soon thanks to years of deferred maintenance,
officials say. But it could be worse – building a new
facility would cost $100 million. The original plant was
built in the 1960s, and the last major changes were made in
2004.
The sewer rate increases approved for Morro Bay will go into
effect in July, despite opposition from a group that earlier
claimed it got enough protest signatures to stop the rate hike.
Morro Bay City Manager Scott Collins clarified in a recent
report that the protest was unsuccessful and the measure will
go into effect with customers seeing the additional charge on
their August bill.
San Diego is in the midst of spending roughly $3 billion on a
massive new water treatment system, but city officials can’t or
won’t tell customers how that will affect their water bills.
New water recycling plants will eventually purify enough sewage
to provide a third of the city’s drinking water. In
December, Voice of San Diego asked the city to estimate how
much customers’ bills will increase because of the Pure Water
project. The city, after weeks of delay, finally declined
last week to offer any estimate because “there is no simple
calculation” they could perform.
Droughts and floods have always tested water management, driven
water systems improvements, and helped water organizations and
users maintain focus and discipline. California’s
2012-2016 drought and the very wet 2017 water year were such
tests.
Technology already exists to treat reused water to levels
meeting or exceeding health standards. But adequate technical
capacity is not sufficient. Water reuse can trigger revulsion,
especially when water is reused for drinking or other potable
purposes. This note explores outreach and engagement strategies
to overcome the “yuck factor” and achieve public support for
water reuse.
Far less settled is how Newsom will fill his administration’s
most important positions regarding state water policy. One of
Newsom’s key tests confronts him immediate: State Water
Resources Control Board Chair Felicia Marcus’ term expires this
week.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research has spent
five years drafting a comprehensive update to 30 sections of
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
guidelines. Several changes to the Guidelines address two
hot button topics: global climate change and statewide
affordable housing shortages. Many of the changes will
significantly alter the application of CEQA to future projects.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has named Jared Blumenfeld, a
former Obama administration official and longtime environmental
advocate as the new secretary of the California Environmental
Protection Agency. Blumenfeld, 49, of San Francisco, will run
the agency, known as Cal-EPA, which oversees a broad range of
environmental and public health regulations statewide, on
topics that include air pollution, water pollution, toxics
regulation, pesticides and recycling.
Montgomery is known for fostering collaborative relationships
among stakeholders and as a leader in protecting and restoring
water quality within California and throughout the Southwest
and the Pacific Islands. He is currently serving as the
Assistant Director of the Water Division in the US
Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9).
There’s every reason to expect that 2019 will be far better,
largely because of Measure W, which was passed by voters in
November. The initiative imposes a Los Angeles County parcel
tax that will generate $300 million per year to reduce
pollution from runoff and capture storm water to add to the
water supply.
As water utilities and their customers increasingly look to
gray water and runoff from storms to supplement their supply
amid drought, more guidelines and research are needed to ensure
that the water is safe, researchers said in a report released
Wednesday.
San Franciscans who want to conserve water by irrigating their
yards with the runoff from their showers and bathroom sinks
will no longer have to get a $250 permit or inspection from the
city, under legislation introduced Tuesday by Supervisor Scott
Wiener.
The last rainfall in Riverside was a windfall for Michael
Hickman, a retiree who has a home project underway to use rain
gutters and barrels to collect some of the precipitation that
lands on his roof.
Ralph Petroff is changing the way California homes use water.
As executive chairman of Nexus eWater, Petroff last week
unveiled the first housing subdivision in the United States
with on-site water recycling standard in every home.
Strands of silver hair fell into Annie Costanzo’s face as she
wielded a sledgehammer against the brick walkway in her
backyard. Plumes of dust and debris filled the air, and
reddish-pink shards scattered in the wake of the 64-year-old
sculptor’s latest water conservation project.
This is a follow-up post to the “One drop, a dozen options”
article in the Summer 2015 Mono Lake Newsletter. The article
mentions longtime Mono Lake Committee member Regina Hirsch and
her business Sierra Watershed Progressive with respect to the
greywater system she helped us create in 2012.
Not just during drought but even in times of normal
precipitation, there is something absurd about taking precious
drinking water — imported at great cost from environmentally
fragile areas hundreds of miles away, pumped over the mountains
using enormous amounts of energy, filtered, treated and tested
so as to be safe for human consumption — and spraying it on
lawns and flowers.
A Mill Valley home has been fitted with a series of pipes and
valves to send shower, sink and clotheswasher graywater to
landscaping in an effort to conserve limited supplies of fresh
water from Mount Tamalpais and the Russian River used by Marin
residents.
I like recycling. I like innovative solutions to California’s
drought. … But while you’re hosing down those corn syrup
barrels, why don’t you also put some thought to how you can
phase out bottled water operations in California and other
water-stressed areas?
In Southern California, gardens are going grey. Grey water
systems that take spent water from showers, bathroom faucets
and washers and use it to quench the landscape are seen by some
as the next step in sustainable gardening across bone-dry
Southern California.
A demonstration house unveiled in El Dorado Hills last week by
national builder KB Home recycles drain water for toilets and
landscaping and can power itself entirely with solar panels.
… Water recycling has been gaining momentum in
California’s historic drought.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
In the West, it is not a matter of if a drought will occur, but
when. In an effort to develop a drought-proof water supply, many
communities are turning to water recycling. Water recycling is
reusing treated wastewater for irrigating golf courses, other
urban landscapes, some crops, wetlands enhancement, industrial
processes and even groundwater recharge. But many people do not
understand how water is treated, recycled and reused, causing
some to oppose new projects.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
Gray water, also spelled as grey water, is water that already has
been used domestically, commercially and industrially. This
includes the leftover, untreated water generated from clothes
washers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks.
This water source is a common way to recycle water and stretch
urban water supplies. As part of this, gray water ‘harvesting’
(the collecting of gray water from sinks, showers, etc.) is
increasingly popular, especially as a way to flush toilets.
