California Statewide Graywater Conference
Tuolumne County Environmental Health presents:
MANAGING A CALIFORNIA RESOURCE GREYWATER CAPTURE
November 15th and 16th, 2012
Evergreen Lodge, Yosemite, CA
Summary: Information and background reading for Art Ludwig's lecture on Why Greywater Matters. |
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Registration
To register, please contact Sierra Watershed Progressive.
What the Why Greywater Matters Lecture Will Explore
The essence of ecological design is to do what makes sense in the context. Greywater systems are highly context sensitive, so small changes in the context can send the design in a totally different direction. For example, the scale of the water flow can require a shift from the ultra simple systems that are almost universally applicable for residential-scale systems to complex systems with filtration, pumping, and electronic controls.
The lecture will cover:
- Why greywater matters
- Changes in greywater standards at the local, and state level
- Why it is good public health policy for greywater systems to not require a permit
- Needed testing
- Needed policy improvements
- Advantages and issues with simple greywater systems, complex greywater systems and needed hardware improvements
- Laundry to landscape system; advantages and limitations
- Undergound mysteries revealed; how soil purifies water, mulch basins science
- Septic vs mulch basin LTAR
- Greywater systems as "indicator species" for the overall integrity of a project's resource management systems
- Greywater in the larger context of integrated, optimal design, and our moment in history
- Quantitative analysis of greywater risk
- Quantitative comparison of mortality for all top risks attributable to the built environment
- What's next: research needed, hardware improvements needed, evolution in building standards
Further reading & Resources
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The more of the background info below you understand (or have been exposed to) before coming, the more you will get out of the lecture.
Optimal, Integrated Design
- Green 4,000 ft2 home?
- Live Better, Waste Less
- Integrated Design Procedure (pdf)
- Eco Design Principles-download
- Ecological design photos
- Eco home checklist-pdf
- Integrated design for fire
- Integrated Design
- Integrated design examples
- The Hand-Sculpted House (book)
- Yurt bath house
Sustainability Policy
Greywater
- Oasis greywater-book
- Common greywater mistakes
- Laundry to landscape
- Laundry 2 landscape-video
- CA grey water stakeholder's meeting handout (pdf, 500k)
- Builder's GW Guide-book
- Stub outs
- Stub outs & collection plumbing checklist (PDF)
- City permitting information on Laundry to Mulch Basin systems
- GW site assessment checklist-pdf
- Greywater Action
Understanding Water
- Treatment vs application depth-pdf
- Fecal coliform counts
- Water indicator bacteria levels (xls)
- Sewers & water quality
- Wild water wisdom-article
Water System Design
- Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (book by Brad Lancaster)
- Water Storage-book
- Water testing-download
- Understanding water class
Art Ludwig's Bio
Optimal, integrated design has been Art Ludwigs day job for 32 years. His specialty is complex, deep green integrated "systems of systems" for water, wastewater systems, energy, shelter, human powered transport, financial sustainability, etc. Using Art's designs, a 75 percent reduction in per capita negative impact is easily achievable and 90% is possible. At UC Berkeley, he developed the first laundry detergent biocompatible with plants and soil, and founded a successful manufacturing business to distribute it. His books Oasis greywater-book and Water Storage-book are top sellers on Amazon, his DVD Laundry 2 landscape-videois helping educate a new generation of landscapers. His 500 page web site, oasisdesign.net is top ranked for a wide range of topics. He has worked professionally on building codes in three states. He has helped craft greywater codes in New York, Arizona, New Mexico, Santa Barbara. His quantitative analysis of the health risks of greywater smoothed the way for more rational regulation of greywater in California, and he played a major role in the crafting of the new standards. He lives with his family in a food jungle in a canyon above Santa Barbara, California, which features rainwater and runoff catchment, as well as numerous other water conservation and reuse features.