Excited about Grey Water

I'm very excited to see what fantastic information Feidhlim Harty, author of Permaculture Guide to Reed Beds, has on grey water.  It is a topic that I've wanted more info on for a long time.  *can't wait*.

As a resident of the high desert, I agree.
Currently, my washer drains out to the side of the house. I have put that into a wood chip pit hoping it scrubs a bit, and sinks down to water the garden sloping away below it.

Me too! I'm just getting started. I live in southern Arizona and have a septic tank and would love to keep my garden green with grey water.

It seems crazy not to be using it, doesn't it?  I'm looking for a high efficiency washing machine so I'll be using one tenth of the water and piping my grey water out to my garden beds.

I live in water rich state, yet I cut my water bills by 40% by installing a used high efficiency cloths washer,and a hand me down low flush toilet.
Doing without beats reuse, but both serve our aims.

I have a tote filled with wood chips for a Solvia style vermafilter,but I need to finish the rest of the plumbing.

Robert Lampert
I am just a bit south of CO. I have been making my own laundry soap. I have been avoiding using borax, as I have read that it can build up in the soil and cause problems.
Best of luck with all your projects!

Hi Carien, Kat et al., Thanks for the enthusiastic welcome. :-)

For grey water irrigation oasisdesign.net is the place to go... You may be interested in a new splitter system from www.ribbit.ie which takes the headache out of getting all your grey water distribution spot on level.

If you need a pre-filter for the irrigation systems then a small pea-gravel reed bed may well be a way to go; following the approximate sizes and layout by Anna Eday in www.solviva.com

What I tend to focus on most here in Ireland is getting the combined grey and black water (septic tank effluent) clean enough to be distributed into a percolation area in sensitive environments so that the client doesn't cause groundwater pollution, or pollution to a nearby stream or river. That, along with dry toilet projects, occasional grey water irrigation projects, wetland wildlife habitat creation projects and willow systems for growing firewood from sewage with zero discharge to the environment.  

Laura, do you have any reference for the borax problem in soils? I'd be interested to follow that up.

William, how has your experience been with the woodchip filter? I've started to specify those more and more here and am keen to learn of the experience of others as much as possible.

:-)

Féidhlim

Feidhlim, I have seen a few sources. Here are a few. I did not get too deeply into the issue since it is so easy to simply use other ingredients in my laundry detergent. Since I have alkaline mountain soil (clay and rocks, oh so much clay and a whole lot of rocks), I use a citric acid, baking soda, washing soda, castille soap mix. I don't worry about it being acidic since the soda will buffer, and since I could use some acid in my soil anyway.

http://plantstress.com/articles/toxicity_i/Boron.pdf

http://plantprobs.net/plant/nutrientImbalances/boron.html

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026186311974 (abstract only)

Thanks Laura, I look forward to following those up further. :-)