[moo]

Just curious, but doesn't bathwater constitute a possible e-coli threat if used for food crop irrigation in warm climates?

moo

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by moo

Just curious, but doesn't bathwater constitute a possible e-coli threat if used for food crop irrigation in warm climates?

moo

Most garden programmes I have been watching have suggested not using grey water on vegetables. Perhaps this is the reason?
I use a big spar so I find it hard to believe such water can be a problem. But I have been using (recycling) it on my ornamentals; as Australia is now in the grip of the worst drought in its European history.

I found this link hard to understand but it may be relevant
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...27&newsLang=en

[moo]

Methinks that link is about a chemical for use in sewer treatment plants for cities etc..

I found a couple of links that address the gray water issue. For the most part it seems discouraged, but may be used with proper caution if not prohibited by local health codes (apparently it's illegal in Washington State, USA).

http://www.umassgreeninfo.org/fact_s...r_gardens.html
http://clallam.wsu.edu/waterquality/rainbarr.html

Some excerpts from the top link: "Recycled water from the bath, shower, or washing machine could contain organisms causing diseases in humans. However, when gray water is poured onto soil that has an abundance of organic matter, the potentially harmful bacteria and viruses die quickly...

...Do not recycle water from a washing machine that has been used to wash baby diapers because it may contain fecal matter....

...Do not apply gray water to leafy vegetables or root crops....

...Apply the gray water directly to the soil surface. Do not use an overhead sprinkler, or allow the recycled water to splash off the soil and contact the above-ground portion of the plants...."

moo

[Michaelangelica]

This is a commercial site full of adds for their products but it does have some useful info.
This is a little grey-water diverter they sell
Green Garden-Grey Water
It does seem a bit small, only holds 110 litres

But the bigger units I have looked at have to have a plumber, council planning permission, an aerator pump (running on on and off- must cost a bit in electricity), a pressure pump and a huge storage huge tank. Sounds like you have to have a big garden or be fairly committed to go though that process.
I hate pumps. When I had a nursery I was always getting my submersible bore pump fixed.

I just siphon my bath water out with a big piece of polly pipe.(I found it under the house fortunately, as I priced it at the hardware store and it is VERY expensive)
I find one bath full (I fill the bath with me in it) waters about 100 pot-plants, of varying sizes, I have now accumulated.

Here is a blurb on grey water at the same site
Green Garden-Grey Water

Sydney Water estimates that an average household (3.5 people) produces 586 litres of wastewater each day.
How much wastewater can be used as grey water?
Approximately 61 per cent of the total wastewater produced by an average household can be used as grey water. Kitchen wastewater is not usually included in this amount. The table below indicates the total amount of wastewater and grey water produced in your home

So about 300 litres a day is a lot of water to be throwing away.

I am beginning to think that the main problem with detergents etc is salt and pH.
I can't see how phosphorus (it is a fertiliser after all) would be a problem except with some Australian native plants who don't like too much of it.
I am not sure how much salt detergents contain (if any). I have not seen any detergents tell you waht pH they are on the bottle.
Sydney has soft water and so salt is not necessary. I did notice when buying a dishwasher that some German-made models had a place to put in a cup-full of salt. The salesperson told me that this was because water in Germany was "hard" (whatever that means). But most grey-water systems don't use kitchen water So. . ?

The same site sells a detergent (pH neutral) that they have put fertiliser in! Clever.
It does seem very expensive. But you never know with detergents what is really expensive or not because it depends on how much it has been watered down.
Anyone used it?
Green Garden-Grey Water

If you are interested their home page has a list of all the water restrictions in Oz capital cities. In the countryside things are often much grimmer.
'They' are talking about having problems producing electricity from hydro soon.
Green Garden-Grey Water

[Michaelangelica]

The Australian broadcasting commission's (ABC'S) page/forum on Grey water
ABC Message Board - Water - New Message

[Michaelangelica]

I have been doing alot of clothes washing this week as the washing machine has been broken for two weeks. All the waste water has been going to the garden. I have used two large bottles of detergent.
I have been using "Hurricane Plant Green" detergent(NO phosphorus -but no other information) and thought I'd better check on its salt content so I sent a letter to the manufacturer. This was their reply:-

Colgate-Palmolive recommend consumers who wish to recycle the grey water
from their washing machine follow the information below.

Do:
* Consult your local water authority to ensure they will permit you to use
untreated grey water;
* Only use the rinse water from your machine, not wash water, due to the
alkalinity of the wash water;
* Rotate the area you apply the grey water to;
* Carefully monitor the areas the grey water is used on and stop if any
issues occur;

Don't
* Do not use the rinse water if it contains fabric softener;
* Do not use the rinse water from soiled washloads containing bodily
fluids;
* Do not use the grey water on new plants, vegetable gardens or green leaf
matter;

Please note that while this information is provided in good faith, our
products have not been formulated with this use in mind and have not been
tested for this application.

Hurricane Laundry Liquid contains less than 20g of sodium per wash.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We hope this information is
helpful.

Yours sincerely

Anna Truong
Senior Consumer Affairs Representative
Colgate-Palmolive

20 grams in EVERY capful !! O no. I wonder what will survive!
That expensive detergent I mentioned before doesn't sound so expensive now.

[Michaelangelica]

It's not easy beeing green.
(radio transcript)

. . .
This product says it has a low salt content, and is greywater safe. But Professor Selinger says it contains boron compounds, which could pose a risk to your garden.

Ben Selinger: In fact there's a CSIRO soil expert I talked to killed his own garden re-using the washing liquid which had boron in it, which he should have known better. So there are some subtle compositional issues there. But products which say they're safe to use on the garden have to be low in sodium and not have any borax in them.
To summarise, the specialist green brand had salt in it, the supermarket green brand had a chemical in it that could kill your plants.
And finally, the difference between the supermarket brand advertising itself as green, and its standard competitor that makes no environmental claims, is negligible.
. . .
Rachel Carbonell: Of all the products that we've looked at so far, there aren't any actual lies being told. But the marketing can be distracting, and at times a little disingenuous.
. . .
Scott McDougall: We found over a thousand products across these six stores, we found over a thousand products that collectively made over 1700 environmental claims, and found that almost all of them, 99% were at risk of either being false or of misleading their intended audience, and we sorted those misleading claims into patterns, which we've come to call the 'Six Sins of Greenwashing.'

Rachel Carbonell: The Six Sins of Greenwashing are: the sin of the hidden trade-off; the sin of no proof; the sin of vagueness; the sin of irrelevance; the sin of the lesser of two evils; and the sin of fibbing. We'll go into more detail about some of the more common so-called sins, shortly.

But one of the most telling revelations to come out of the Six Sins of Greenwashing, was that the sin of fibbing, or actually telling outright porkies, is the least common

Background Briefing - 10 February 2008 - Greenwashing

[Michaelangelica]

Wetparks
not a new way to purify water

Wetparks, the concept