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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] earthships and greywater

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  • From: Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] earthships and greywater
  • Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 09:25:11 -0400


On Sep 5, 2004, at 4:48 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

Scott Vlaun wrote:
My mother in law lives in Taos in a Mike Reynolds inspired earthship that her son Peter built about 10 years ago. For the most part it functions well but the greywater system from the kitchen is prone to overwhelming the planters that it drains into. In more recent greywater systems Peter installed valving to allow for sending the water to different places, both inside and out, and they seem to function quite well.

What exactly can be done with the laundry and dish detergent in greywater?
I happen to use BioPac environmentally friendly biodegradable versions of these
but it still makes me nervous about long term potentioal for leaving problematic residues
in soil.

We've been draining our dishwater from our summer kitchen right on the ground into a small patch of conifers and raspberries for the last four years and I've seen no ill effects. The trees and bushes are considerably bigger than anything else out there. We also use biodegradable detergent. My in-laws have been dumping laundry water (non bio-degadable) into a patch of wildflowers and grasses in taos and have created quite an oasis behind the house. Shower water has been going into swales with veggies growing on the sides where they don't actually come into contact with the water but absorb it through the roots. This seems to be working out pretty well too, but needs a little adjusting to keep the water from always ending up in the same place. I think the real problems in all of this will come when the deep freeze hits.


Are there constructed wetlands "living systems" that can be built that will break down detergents
in water so that it can safely flow across farm fields used for food production?

Maybe we could do a little brainstorming about scaleable constructed wetlands systems to handle greywater and storm runoff.

John Todd has done a lot of work in this regard. Some of his systems utilize a wide variety of plants in greehouse-based hydroponic systems. His ocean Arks International home base is only a half day's drive from here in VT and is perpetually on my field trip list. He's developed plant-based bioremediation systems to treat a lot more toxic stuff than laundry and dish water so i think we should be able to come up with a pretty modest system which would take care of any greywater waste we might generate in a household or small community. Again I think the issue is keeping active plant growth to absorb nutrients when it's below freezing for weeks on end.

Here's a link to OA

http://www.oceanarks.org/wetlands/





LL
--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech
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