California drought spurring ‘grey water’ recycling at home

Read article : California drought spurring ‘grey water’ recycling at home

BERKELEY >> Showering during California’s drought is a guilt-free experience for homeowners Catarina Negrin and Noah Friedman.

The Berkeley couple — she runs a preschool, he’s an architect — are early adopters of a home plumbing do-over that’s becoming more popular during California’s record four-year dry stretch.

California, like many states, long required all water used in homes to be piped out with the sewage, fearing health risks if water recycling is done clumsily.

Since 2010, however, the increasingly dry state has come around, and now even encourages the reuse of so-called gray water, which typically includes the gently-used runoff from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines.

As mandatory conservation kicked in statewide this month, forcing many of California’s 38 million people to face giving up on greenery, these recycling systems have become attractive options in new homes, right along with granite countertops. California Building Industry Association executive Robert Raymer rattles off the drought-conscious top builders that now routinely offer in-home water recycling.

And California’s building codes are catching up as well, allowing owners of existing homes to create the simplest systems for the safest gray water without a permit.

So while others think about hauling buckets to catch stray drips from their sinks and tubs, Negrin and Friedman can relax: Each gallon they use in the shower means another for the butterflies that duck and bob over their vegetable garden, for the lemon tree shading the yard, and for two strutting backyard chickens busily investigating it all.

“I love a lush garden, and so it seems like why not, right? I could have a lush garden if it doesn’t go into the sewer system,” Negrin said. “So, yes, “I’m going to take a shower.”

Because pathogens swimming in untreated gray water can transmit disease if humans ingest them, most modern health and building codes have long made recycling it impractical. Many families did it anyway, without official oversight or permits. Greywater Action, a group that promotes household water recycling and trains families and installers on the do’s and don’ts, estimates that more than a million Californians had illegal systems before plumbing codes were updated.

But interest in doing it the right way has soared since April 1, when Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a 25-percent cut in water use by cities and towns. Palo Alto gray-water system installer Sassan Golafshan saw his website crash within a day from the surge in traffic.

“There’s huge interest,” said Laura Allen, a co-founder of Greywater Action. Contractors “told us they’re getting so many more calls than before.”

Water savings could be significant. A 2009 study by the University of California at Los Angeles found that if everyone in the southern part of the state recycled the water that currently goes down drains from their showers and washing machines, there would be enough to satisfy Southern California’s entire outdoor residential water use needs.

At the California Water Resources Board’s recycled water unit, chief Randy Barnard is fielding many calls from homeowners desperate to save their beloved lawns and gardens. “If they’ve got a prize fruit tree they’ve been babying for years, they don’t want to lose that tree,” he said.

But for many, he has some bad news to share. Recycling water at home is not as easy as just hooking your shower up to the lawn sprinklers, and recycled water probably won’t save the lawn.

“Just like there’s no one sure way to fight the drought, there’s no one sure way for gray-water treatment,” the state gray-water chief said. “Everybody has to look at all the options and figure out what works for them.”

Water from toilets is considered “black” water and sent straight to wastewater treatment plants. Many states also bar water from kitchen sinks, since homeowners may have contaminated it by washing raw meat.

In California, homeowners are now allowed to irrigate with untreated water straight from bathroom sinks, washing machines and bathtubs, as long as — among other requirements — the water lines run beneath soil or mulch, so as not to come in contact with people. That rules out using untreated gray water on lawns, which typically need above-ground spray heads or sprinklers.

Gray water can even go to vegetable gardens like Negrin’s and Friedman’s, as long as it doesn’t touch root vegetables or any other plant part that’s eaten. Tomatoes are fine, but forget about carrots.

The latest plumbing-code changes have enabled families to install these straightforward laundry-to-landscape systems without a permit, sending wash water into the yard with a valve to divert it back into the sewage system when needed. A handy homeowner can do it with no more than a couple hundred of dollars of piping and parts.

More complicated systems, involving automation, filters and pumps, can top out at $30,000, contractors said.

About 20 states now allow gray-water recycling, and around the country, Arizona has some of the friendliest laws. California still has more to do, Allen and other advocates say. Raymer, at the building trade group, hopes for more legal changes in the coming years to align state gray-water codes with the rules of hundreds of cities and towns.

AP Video journalist Haven Daley contributed to this report.

Drought Conditions Changing the Way Society Thinks About Water Infrastructure on Environmental XPRT

Read article : Drought Conditions Changing the Way Society Thinks About Water Infrastructure on Environmental XPRT

While proactive water conservation is a smart way for consumers to react to climate change, the crisis puts increased pressure on water utilities to better manage their resources and pipeline networks.

Change is in the air. One only needs to check the daily news to understand why climate change, drought and water infrastructure have become frequent buzzwords heard around the water cooler.

For residents of states that stretch from the Pacific Coast to across the southwestern United States, the summer of 2015 may go down in history as one of the driest seasons on record, with widespread restrictions on water usage.

This past spring California Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed mandatory water cutbacks for all residents. Calling this “perhaps the worst drought California has ever seen since records began being kept about 100 years ago,” the Governor ordered cities and towns to cut usage by as much as 36 percent.

With the stroke of a pen, the simple act of washing your car, watering your lawn or taking a shower instead of a bath has become a conscious decision. The repercussions of water restrictions are even changing kitchen habits for cooks, restaurants and food producers, and across the nation many water-thirsty crops are forcing consumers to pay higher prices at the grocery store.

Water supplies and delivery systems threatened

Population growth, drought and severe climate changes have resulted in declining reservoir and aquifer levels, threatening water supplies and delivery systems. The water level in Lake Mead, the largest drinking-water reservoir in the United States, has dropped so much that the city of Las Vegas agreed to spend US$800,000 to build a deeper 3-mile long intake pipe to address the problem for residents and visitors.

“We have to think differently,” said Michael Connor, the deputy secretary of the Interior Department. “It’s not enough just to conserve water. We have a lot of infrastructure, but a lot of it doesn’t work very well anymore. We need to undertake what amounts to a giant re-plumbing project across the West.”

Daunting challenges demand innovative solutions

Although there are no simple solutions, the crisis has given us ample opportunity to reconsider how we use water and what we can do to conserve, reuse and repair. And while proactive water conservation is a smart way for consumers to react, the crisis puts increased pressure on water utilities to better manage their resources and pipeline networks.

One of the biggest drivers for utilities is finding ways to reduce the loss of water from leaky pipes. According to the American Water Works Association, that loss can range between 14 to 18 percent, nationwide. When a state like California distributes an estimated 38 billion gallons a day, the savings potential is immense, from both a financial and resource standpoint.

Cutting edge leak detection technologies help preserve water

Pure Technologies, a world leader in infrastructure management, has been helping utilities and water authorities manage the life cycle of their pipeline assets for more than a decade.

To date Pure has assessed, analyzed and monitored more than 8,700 miles of pressurized pipeline, everything from distribution andtransmission mains delivering drinking water to wastewater pipelines carrying raw sewage.

Through our technical platforms and engineering services, Pure’scondition assessment technologies have helped clients prevent more than 2,300 failures worldwide, resulting in billions of dollars in savings, not to mention hundreds of billions of gallons in water savings. Pure has also located more than 4,000 leaks on water mains using our leak detection technologies.

Not surprising, the real job is just beginning, as society becomes acutely more aware of water issues.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

Globally, utilities have come to value Pure’s expertise in helping them to sustainably manage their water networks using inspection as the cornerstone to understanding what needs to be addressed.

Getting a firm handle on water loss means taking a holistic approach. Utilities can effectively reduce their real water losses by completing regular leak detection in their distribution network using traditional leak detection tools, like correlators, combined with a transmission main leak detection program using inline tools that can accurately locate high-loss leaks.

Service providers such asWachs Water Services can also reduce water loss through a valve management program, which improves valve condition and location information for field staff. An effective valve program allows a utility to reduce their response time – and the associated water loss – when a pipe failure does occur.

Regular condition assessment of water mains can also identify pipes that are at risk of failure, and can effectively reduce failures that result in large water losses.

All this operational efficiency is going over well with stakeholders and a more informed public that appreciates sustainable efforts and has embraced singing shortersongs in the shower.