I wouldn't worry about it. I use vegetable cooking water to water plants, the bucket in the shower to water plants etc.
Here, we're still able to water our lawns once a week. I do it maybe once a month although my neighbor waters once a week. I'm sorely tempted to bag one of his sprinkler heads or change its direction to my lawn.

I save water whenever possible but we are a two person household where some of the neighbors are 5-6 person households with 5-6 bathrooms. This household uses far less water than most of our neighbors so I don't feel bad turning on the sprinklers occasionally.

I also saw that article this morning and could not believe what I was reading. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Not only is this article mind boggling, but I find its whole tone offensive. Certainly there are going to small amounts of some soaps, micro-organisms and other stuff in bath water, but they are not harmful to our plants, the environment nor the groundwater if used in reasonable amounts. The statement that water from our shower and kitchen sink is as bad as the water that we flush down the toilet is ludicrous. Does anyone know how to determine what the law concerning gray water reuse is in other states? We need to build a case for getting this law modified and talk to our state representatives. I have seen several articles recently in gardening magazines advocating the collection and use of gray water for watering shrubs, trees and flowers which leads me to believe that its use is legal elsewhere. I was told today by another appalled gardener that several years ago during another severe drought, the News and Observer ran an article praising a woman who was using water from her kitchen to water her flowers. A short time later someone from a local government agency showed up at her door and threatened to arrest her if she did not stop.

Here is a link that might be useful: Water Reuse Illegal re Raleigh New & Observer

The article does say:

There is nothing wrong, state environment and health officials say, with collecting water in the shower while waiting for the cool to get warm -- as long as it hasn't touched you. It is permissible, too, to collect and use water from the kitchen sink as long as it has not come into contact with food and other waste.

How would they know which kind of water you are using? If there are pathogens on my body, is that really going to affect my tree? I'm walking around with them on my body all day, any of them could've brushed off at any time.

I'm guessing these folks are trying to protect themselves from a future lawsuit. "We told you so!"

That is so weird. Nobody seems to mind if we put out truckloads of manure. Heaven knows how dangerous the chemical stuff is that people routinely spray, dump and dust around the garden. It is not as if my sluffed off cells in the shower don't make their way into the ground - I have a septic tank. Where do they think that ends up, Mars?

I have a well. I drink that!! But only after it filters through 448 feet of sand.

People who made these laws should be taken out of office.

If people are not connected to public sewage system all their gray water goes to septic tank in ground and then goes into ground by drain lines. It is a lot better to put this water from bath into flower beds than septic tanks.

Most cities don't treat there waste water good enough before dumping into ocean are other local water stream.

I have a rent house in Winston-Salem and the city sewage line going by the house don't work (it stays stop up) and they will not fixed it.

I think a lot of these perceived as silly rules come into the books as a method to protect food sources. They don't make sense to the average homeowner but discourages food growers from using some perhaps devious ways to deal with the drought.
I only have some lettuce growing and that will not be watered with water I save during showering...e-coli and other bacteria from our skin .

You better make sure you have a good raincoat on ever time you go out when its raining are the rain shower will wash water from your body into the ground water. Maybe they will make a law that said nobody can go outdoors in rain unless they have a government approve raincoat, hair net and face mass. Get real, the government is pumping raw sewage into the ocean. A few years ago I was at Miami Beach but was not allowed to get in the ocean because of sewage of a nearby city.

Please tell me why it is better to pump sewage into the ocean than it is to water flowers with bath water.

Screw 'em.... I am not growing food, I am watering a tree. I am using grey water that has touched my unholy body. My mother did the same 45 years ago to keep her young trees alive in a horrible drought and guess what, I lived to tell about it. gee, I'm not using dioxin soap! you are right on, basil. Sewage is definately safer than bath water...right...

basil, I just meant I'm not watering the lettuce with my bath/shower water. Trees,shrubs and everything else can have grey water.

Dottie,

I think that the way to do the watering.
I think lettuce would be OK to use grey water if none of the water hit the plant, but no need to take the chance.

I have a rent home where I cut the sewage line into two part. One part for bath water and clothes washer and kitchen sink.I have not set this up for watering, but may sometime.
The reason I did this was to cut down on the amount of water going into septic tank.

Check this out, friends! Times, they are a'changin'!

Here is a link that might be useful: gray water ok

Yippee!
Thanks for the update. Now I won't feel guilty planting annuals in our many pots! Trying to conserve water; I have been standing in the garden lately and wondering what color of silk flowers would look good in the flower pots. This is great news!