You can make a difference to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event in your town or your city! How? Reuse, repurpose, and recycle this information. You can push your local politicians to act. It will make a difference!
This is the letter for week 165 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents of the topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile…
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
For when San Francisco runs out of water
Reaction Guidelines for Water, pt. 2: Gray Water
This is a resource for dealing with gray water when SF runs out of water. The goal is to have procedures you can pick off the shelf and put in place when it’s too late for you to plan in advance and avoid the worst of a disaster.
Glossary of terms used
additives — in detergents and other cleaners these can include whitening, softening, enzymatic powders, surfactants, coloring agents, fragrance and others
alkylbenzenes — a group of aromatic hydrocarbons, derived from benzene, that are often carcinogens with various other side effects related to side chains and functional groups
boron/borax or sodium perborate — cleaner with insecticidal and herbicidal effects in the environment
bleaches, chlorine, sodium trypochlorite — these change pH, damage or kill plants, and damage some animals (especially amphibians) and larvae
gray water — domestic wastewater without fecal contamination, from sinks, showers, washing machines, etc.
peroxygens — these chemicals, such as hydrogen peroxide, contain a peroxide anion and are unstable and very reactive
petroleum distillate — these include things such as alkylbenzenes, they are made from petroleum, they are toxic and carcinogens, sometimes mutagens, often endocrine disruptors, with many more safety issues
pH — literally power of hydrogen, it is the measure of how acid or base a solution is
potable — water that is safe to drink
salt — any compound formed by the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base, these tend to be soluble in water, and are destructive to plant and animal life via osmotic pressure and exposure to toxic cations (such as sodium or lead) or anions (such as peroxide or sulfite)
In a water emergency, CA won’t be much help
It is estimated that of the 2 million plus gray water systems in CA only 200 have a state permit. This is due to CA’s very restrictive and expensive-to-put-in-place gray water code. For example, water from kitchen sinks is not considered gray water while wash sink water is, and it’s expected that all gray water instillation will be done by plumbers and pipefitters, even though much of the work is easily done by non-professionals.
However, the state does not go after unpermitted gray water systems. Since SF is very unlikely to plan in advance and institute gray water recycling before we need it, we’ll be building graywater systems during a major emergency when the state will have other things to focus on. So it’s up to us what we make here.
And, fortunately, there are multiple states with useful gray water recycling codes for reference. Specifically see NV, OR, WA, TX, AZ, NM, and MT for more details about what’s possible if we act in advance of an emergency.
What does SF need to get started immediately in an emergency?
Gray water is non-potable. That means we must use it for:
• watering any crops, parks, and landscaping we need to survive
• flushing any water toilets still in use
• refilling aquifers
• filling lagoons or ponds
Gray water use requires safety considerations and plumbing
If gray water is being used to grow food, it must be transformed by the plant or animal in some way. Gray water cannot be used for crop irrigation if it touches edible areas of the crop; it cannot be used for root vegetables but is fine for watering fruit trees or corn. It can be used in ponds where fish are raised for consumption. For these uses, gray water is piped out of a house or building by gravity directly into the area. This is an easy physical set-up.
For toilet flushing, gray water is put into the bowl and not the tank; this is to prevent smell, leaks, or sedimentation in the tank. Toilet flushing involves collecting gray water in a bucket and pouring it directly into the toilet when you want to flush it. This requires buckets.
Larger scale gray water systems, involving neighborhoods for example, are possible but expensive. This requires planning, space, digging, pipes, money, and time.
Gray water cannot be wasted on golf courses, lawns, and non-native landscaping. Gray water is a water source as valuable and as useful as potable water, and is not to be wasted.
Gray water must be as clean as possible
The following are bad for water in general, and bad for any intended gray water uses:
• Additives, such as whiteners, softeners, enzyme powders, coloring agents, surfactants, fragrances, and most other additives are pollutants, often carcinogens, usually toxic, and are damaging to ecosystems. These additives are often made with alkylbenzenes, boron or boron salts, sodium salts, bleaches or chlorine compounds, petroleum distillates, and peroxides, all of which are hazardous to ecosystems.
• Salts destroy most ecosystems. Even naturally occurring salts in ecosystems such as saltwater marshes do not include industrially produced salts; these are usually toxic to life.
• Anything that changes the pH of an ecosystem or part of an ecosystem is destructive.
That means SF needs a list of safe cleaning products
It is now easy to find this information. There are commercial products that can be purchased (Dr. Bronners, ECOS, Oasis, BioPac, etc) but there are also non-commercial options (soap nuts, laundry balls, vinegar, and baking soda in limited quantities) that work and many of which are readily available in most households. The Environmental Working Group’s website (https://www.ewg.org) is always up-to-date and easy to navigate to find out more about specifics on products and their impacts. Looking at this resource in advance of a disaster is a very good idea.
Blackwater and gray water are easy; potable water is harder
As we will see next week. Meanwhile, remember that while reacting is so much easier to justify than acting, it’s not efficient and will cost lives.