Has anyone designed a greywater system that had to be inspected?

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I'm in Colorado, Cleer Creek County, I had to get a permit as I;m remodling and the house has never had a CO. the house is plumbed for greywater, so I'm having to design the outside part of the system. Are there standards? example; valve to dump into septic, just in case? Surge tank to ? I have Art Ludwigs books, But they don't mention code and this Health Inspector hasen't sent me any answers I asked for. Thanks Polly

-- Polly R. Bryant (Radean@webtv.net), September 26, 2000

Answers

We had whats locally called a dry well. It consisted of a trench dug out by an excavator that the grey water flows out to via plastic pipe. The trench is filled with gravel of some sort, covered with landscape fabric to block dirt from sifting in, and then covered over. With our hard clay it lasted about 2 weeks before it was backing water up back into the basement, drainage is so poor on our land. That really cheesed us off after paying over $200. We decided to do it ourselves and codes be danged. Neighbor plowed us a trench from the pipe down to the back field (down slope so gravity helps out alot in water flow) near the woods. We made sure it was a couple feet deep to avoid freezing standing water. Then we fit pipe all the way down the trench to the bottom and filled it back in except for the end of the pipe. Its in a little hollow and the water flows out into the field from there. So far its working great except for after a snow storm when the hollow filled in and caused the water to freeze in the pipe (couldn't flow). Until that ice thawed we had water backing up again . We had to do the work on Sundays to be sure no professional water system experts were wandering the roads and would see us at work. The willow near the pipe end (above ground mind you) has never looked better! Hope this is of some help. Just thought I'd share our grey water experience.

-- Alison Proteau (aproteau@istar.ca), September 27, 2000.

I would recommend just letting the grey water flow out onto a hillside. At my old house, mine used to run to a flat area, which caused a really smelly swamp to form. I rerouted it, and the food scraps, (those that weren't cleaned off into the compost, y'know) settled out on the hillside, and the water ran on down the hill to water the forest.

Two caveats: if you're a carnivore, don't do this with your kitchen sink water. My neighbor, who is a carnivore, did it, and he had a 15 by 25' area covered with what looked like bacon grease, covered with flies and yellow jackets (aka meat bees, aka Mckenzie bees, aka ground bees) BAd news. The water from lavatories, showers, bathtubs, clothes washers, etc. should be fine.

Many folks around here get their plumbing inspected, then, before covering it, they do a little "alteration", and separate the above mentioned drains from the one leading to the septic tank. It's wise to have the two now separate drain pipes aligned in such a way that you could connect them later, if someone wanted to.

Your septic system will last for a jillion times longer without all the water from these aforementioned appliances going to it, by the way. In fact, it is possible to put in about 25% as much drainfield this way.

Have fun!

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), October 01, 2000.


Before you begin the construction, it would be wise to descretly research all aspects in your area. Local, Fed,EPA and Environmental Management. I have read of horror stories where alternative waste systems have caused wetland classification, result: goodbye to anything you want to do on your property, except watch the wildlife enjoy it, but please, don't step on the snails.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), October 01, 2000.

Hi,

I'd recommend checking out the National Small Flows Clearinghouse at West Vir University. They do all sorts of interesting water related information. They also appear to have the blessings of the EPA, USDA, and a bunch of other Fed agencies. I would suspect that if you followed some of their recommendations and designs, your local folks would have a harder time in blowing off your design. They even mention greywater systems by name !!

Get a subscription to their pubs in any event. They are worth the time to read.

Best of Luck.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), October 03, 2000.


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