Wastewater: A Total Waste of Water in Times of Drought and Dehydration

I'm always hearing how water is such a precious resource. I grew up in California, where it really is. We went through droughts, and there was a heavy emphasis on water conservation starting in early grade-school lessons. As I looked around me it seemed we knew just enough to know something was wrong. We didn't know quite enough to identify the source of the problem or do anything about it, though.

Some people installed low-flow fixtures in their homes and businesses. The result was the need to use twice as much water to make up for the lack of pressure. Perhaps we should have been installing super high flow fixtures instead. We dropped bricks in the tanks of our toilets but continued to use gallons and gallons of clean drinking water to dispose of our bodily waste. We haven't been particularly careful about what happens to all that biological waste once it leaves our homes either.

As a child, I used to love to run around in the rain or snow with my tongue out. When visiting snowy locales, my family would sometimes put cups outside when it was snowing to make homemade snow cones. Yum! It's a bitter irony that people should consider rain and snow art, entertainment, or frustration and that they should use precious drinking water to dispose of biological waste - while at the same time suffering from drought and dehydration.

If we are to create a self-sustaining home, one of the most important subjects for me to understand is water usage. I have a firm grasp on the basics and I'm going to start by discussing waste water. Learning to reuse water, and not to use so much in the first place will greatly ease the burden of providing enough in the first place.

First, let's define our waste water. Then, in the next couple articles, I'll discuss how to reduce it. There are two kinds of wastewater. There is blackwater and greywater. As you can imagine, blackwater is the most contaminated. Blackwater contains fecal matter and urine. As such, it also contains pathogens that can easily contaminate soil, plants, and animals that come in contact with it. Blackwater is why we have septic systems. Greywater is the other wastewater. This contains soaps from washing, perhaps small amounts of biological residues from the people or items that were washed. Sometimes it contains VERY small amounts of pathogenic material from hand washing and bathing and the like. Though, if it has anywhere near a contaminating amount, it should be considered blackwater and treated as such. Greywater is safe to recycle throughout your house in different ways, but is typically disposed of after it's first use anyway. It is mixed with and contaminated by blackwater in septic systems or city sewage disposal processes.

With these basic terms explained, we can start to discuss alternatives to typical modern waste water disposal. The next few articles will be coming quickly, so check back soon for information on getting rid of blackwater and reusing greywater.