Image galleries

Greywater irrigated landscapeGreywater is water from your bathroom sinks, showers, tubs, and washing machines. It is not water that has come into contact with feces, either from the toilet or from washing diapers.

Greywater may contain traces of dirt, food, grease, hair, and certain household cleaning products. While greywater may look “dirty,” it is a safe and even beneficial source of irrigation water in a yard. There are many simple, economical ways to reuse greywater in the landscape.

Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground

Available from 100 Fires.

"The politics of water - as this brilliant anthology makes clear - are the politics of human survival. Read this, and believe me, you'll never flush with the same equanimity again."

Corn grown with urine-fertilizer. (photo by Peter Morgan, Aquamor)The modern day sewer system has failed. Fortunately, we don't need costly sewage plants or septic systems to render human waste into a harmless substance that, instead of being a problem, is a solution to problems of water shortages, water pollution, and reliance on chemical fertilizers.

This is ecological sanitation, taking care of our human sanitation needs in a way that is helpful, rather than harmful, to the environment.

Sliding scale donation between $30 and $100.

Greywater Action has been sharing these workshops for many years and have a huge passion for bringing this information to anyone who wants it. We strive to make it affordable for as many people as possible (and work trade is available too, let us know if you are interested). But if you are able to, please consider paying towards the top of the scale because you will make it possible for us to do more low cost workshops for more people.

Part of a laundry-to-landscape system.

Read about greywater projects here!

Walk through examples of greywater systems using washing machines, sinks, and showers to irrigate fruit trees, berries, ornamentals, and vegetables.

Books:

Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground 

Edited by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, July Oskar Cole, and Laura Allen, illustrated by Annie Danger. Soft Skull Press, 2007

This 2007 anthology brings together an analysis of water's history with the active fight for its future. An investigation into the political economy and environmental impact of water consumption, Dam Nation presents water harvesting and ecological as ways for readers to join the "water underground" themselves.

TaroWetlands are nature's water purifiers. They remove nutrients filter sediments from floodwaters, and can be designed to remove nutrients and other pollutants from stormwater and wastewater.Although greywater used for irrigation does not need treatment, constructed wetlands can be used to treat greywater for destined for the aquifer or a local creek, river, pond, or estuary, or to create backyard wildlife habitat.

When thinking about treating greywater in a wetland, here are a few things to keep in mind:

There are many studies on the safety of reusing greywater. A consensus among studies is that greywater is not safe to ingest, and thus greywater systems should keep greywater in pipes and soaking into the ground to prevent accidental ingestion. This page contains summaries and links to several studies on greywater.

Blah.Bamboo irrigated with greywater: Bamboo grown with greywater infiltrated into mulch basins.

Bamboo irrigated with greywater: Bamboo grown with greywater infiltrated into mulch basins.

Collecting sink waterThere are many ways to reduce water use with minor or temporary plumbing alterations. Options range from installing shower shut off valves, to collecting greywater under a sink, to putting a washing machine outside the house, or even installing sawdust composting toilet! 

This is a low-tech system that provides easy  distribution of greywater to many plants. It is relatively low cost, and easy to install. The washing machine's internal pump slightly pressurizes the greywater, so this system can irrigate plants that are slightly uphill or further away along flat ground.

You can find many greywater system materials can often be found at a local salvage yard. Each type of system requires a few specialty parts that can be found from online stores, large plumbing supply houses, and irrigation stores. Read more about where to find parts for your greywater system here.

Rivers are a precious (priceless?) commons, defined by the public trust doctrine as common public resource. Yet in North America and around the world, the doctrine of Manifest Destiny has degraded rivers and the watersheds they drain.

Two Dams Down: Undamming the West, One River at a Time in Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground (excerpt)

by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Laura Allen

The History of Dams

by Cleo Woefle-Erskine

Education is at the heart of our work. We provide workshops, trainings, presentations, theater, and a demonstration booth on sustainable water use technologies.

Presentations:

We offer a variety of presentations, catering to the particular interest and knowledge level of the group. We've presented to groups such as colleges, professional firms, garden groups, church groups, high school students, green festivals, and cities.

Apartments, businesses, schools, or other situations with more water, more people, and more public exposure to the greywater will require a more complex and sophisticated system for reuse. Systems for this situation collect greywater in a large temporary tank, filter and disinfect it, and then pump it back to either flush toilets, or supply a drip irrigation system for the landscape.

Sourcing the Rain

Design landscape to welcome the rain

Bioswale: Vegetation captures runoff from paths at UC Berkeley.On any house lot, there are three potential sources for harvesting the rain. The easiest to capture is the rain that falls on the yard. Shape the surface of the soil to slow down runoff, raise paths and patios, and sink all planting areas to capture the flow. Choose plants -- primarily low-water-use natives -- that can absorb and hold that water in their root systems.