Rainwater Harvesting
In this arid region, one of the most important factors in creating a comfortable outdoor living space is WATER. We get an average of 11 inches of rain each year and it is roughly split between two main rainy seasons. Because we get so little rainfall it is even more important to put what does fall on your property to beneficial use.
Two Ways to Harvest Rainwater
Passive
Passive harvesting entails shaping the earth to hold rain on your site and direct it to beneficial areas.
Active
Active harvesting entails collecting runoff from hard surfaces, like your roof, and storing it in a tank/cistern for future use.
Greywater Harvesting
Greywater Harvesting can be another cost effective way of creating a lush landscape while also conserving water. One of the easiest sources of greywater to take advantage of is from your laundry machine. By diverting your laundry water to the landscape, you get two uses out of the same water. Read below to find out how you can send your laundry water 75-100 ft through the landscape with multiple emitter points along the way!
A pressurized laundry greywater system is plumbed in such a way that it takes advantage of the pump built into the washing machine to push laundry greywater through distribution lines in the landscape.
Using the pump in this way allows water to be run 75-100 feet into the landscape and allows for 6-10 emitter points along the run.
The system consists of two main sections:
- water diversion
- water distribution
The first portion of a pressurized laundry greywater system is the diversion plumbing at the machine.
The washing machine outlet hose us connected to a 3-way valve. One valve outlet is connected to 1" PVC, which exits the house to the landscape - the distribution plumbing will be connected to this stub out. The other 3-way-valve outlet is tied back to the sewer/septic receiver.
This setup allows the landscape distribution lines to be pressurized and also allows users to choose whether they send water to the landscape or to the sewer/septic.
The laundry distribution plumbing is the exterior portion of the system that spreads the water through the landscape. A mainline is trenched through the landscape (up to 100 feet), and emitter lines tee off at various points along the way (6-10 emitters).
We connect to the diversion stub out with 1" PVC, directed to the ground. From there, we either continue in 1" PVC or transition to 1" polytube. We can plumb 1/2" polytube emitter lines anywhere along the mainline. We include a 1/4 turn ball valve at the end of each emitter line.
We end the mainline run with an open ended riser that serves as an overflow in the event that all emitter valves got clogged or closed. (We've never heard from any clients about emitter lines getting clogged.)
The beauty of these systems is that there is virtually no required maintenance.
The most important maintenance requirement is making sure that nothing is obstructing the emitters.
Sending water to the sewer is advisable if you are doing a load of laundry using harsh chemicals such as bleach.
It is advisable to use a detergent with no sodium if you are sending water to fruit trees. Oasis brand is available at our local Food Conspiracy Co-op.
We've found that our native plants can generally handle the salts that nearly every other detergent contains.
Using woodchips/mulch at the outlet points can help with water filtration.
