Grey water tank questions

18 years ago

Hi all,

We just moved from MI to MT, we are renting a place that has a grey water tank out back. The tub, washer, and sinks go to it. There is a pump that goes in it to pump out the water (we have not had a chance to test it yet to see if it works). This "tank" is just an old metal drum sunk into the ground sideways, the problem is that it is very rusted and there is a hole in side (which is the top) I'm not sure if this is to put the pump in, or if it just rusted through. The tank is a little above ground and the only thing covering the hole is an old rug. The water in the tank is nasty, and I mean nasty! I have no idea when it was last pumped out.

So....do we dig it up and replace it, or just pump the old water out and start with "fresh" water? Shouldn't it be covered? What about the food particles that may go down the sink? Should there be a filter on it somewhere? And what about bugs, is there something that you treat the tank with, like deet?

Sorry for all the questions, this is all new to me, but I do like the idea of putting the used water to work. Here in Montana there are very FEW wells so unless you live in the city (we do not) you rely on a cistern for your household water, and at $40 a fill I'm not watering flowers with it. And there is no sense in a rain barrel, we don't get enough to do anything with it, the summers here are hot and dry where I'm at. Although I am going to check into a "snow" barrel. Hmmm.... I wonder if I could do something with that?

Any help is appreciated, please keep in mind that we are renting so I do not want to put a huge amount of money into this, but since the house is already plumbed for it I would like to use it.

Thanks,

Vic

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Comments (2)

gardenlen
18 years ago
g'day vic,

my suggestion would be to by-pass the tank set up (clean it out so there is no left overs in the drum then leave it there for the property owner to bother with later on), it is not a good idea to store grey water for any amount of time, and there will always be residual water after pumping out, this at the very least smellies up the water and could also help bacteria to form?

grey water is best used as fresh as you get it, if you get too much for the gardens then run it to the lawn. to make you grey water mor garden frindly check out the recipe for our laundry gel come general purpose and hand cleaner on our remedies page, we use our grey water from dishes and laundry on our gardens and the laundry water also goes onto potted plants.

better management might be to use excess grey water to flush solids down the toilet (we use buckets in the shower or bail out the bath tub for this purpose also), mostly takes 1/2 a bucket each time, no good wasting drinking quality water to flush urine either leave it in the bowl for the next solids flush or collect urine sperately for use in the gardens etc.,.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
Belgianpup
18 years ago
There are some good books on greywater use, and best I've seen are all written by Art Ludwig, and are in the library systems. If yours doesn't have the books, get them through an Interlibrary Loan. All good info with diagrams, easily understood.

The good greywater systems are all simple. A pump is usually used for pumping the water HIGH or FAR. If there is enough vertical drop and not too far distant, gravity feed is sufficient.

Greywater is usually used for watering trees when used directly. There is no harm in using it on fruit trees, but you wouldn't want to use it on low-growing food plants.

Don't worry about food particles or minor bacteria. The soil microbes make short work of them.

Rainwater collection: Here is a precipitation map of MT
http://www.bigskyfishing.com/Montana-Info/galleries/maps/precipitation-map.shtm

If you are in the lighter orange area, you get 10-15" of rain. If you got 10", for every 1000 sq ft of roof (house, barn, garage, sheds), you have the potential of slightly over 76,000 gallons of water.

The average American household uses 35 gallons of water per person per day.

See Rainwater Collection Calculator here: http://www.csgnetwork.com/rwcollectioncalc.html

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Greywater Oasis
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