Great news!

As an emergency drought measure, California has adopted gray water usage! Starting on August 4, 2009, code changes allow for simpler, more inexpensive gray water systems in residences.  Clothes washer and one single-fixture systems no longer require local building permits for use in single-family and two-family dwellings.

Gray water is washwater left over from dishwashing, showers, sinks, and laundry that can be repurposed for landscape irrigation.  A three bedroom home typically generates 160 gallons of gray water per day.  That’s 58,400 gallons each year!  With the newly approved systems, a family could divert about 22,000 gallons of water each year just by diverting gray water from their laundry.  Using gray water for irrigation lowers fresh water use, limits strain on septic tanks and sewage systems, reclaims wasted nutrients, encourages plant growth, and more.  Gray water recycling is also very safe.

In the first LivingHome in Santa Monica, CA, ground-level landscaping is watered with gray water from the showers, tubs, bathroom sinks, and clothes washer, via a subterranean irrigation system.  The system was the first of its kind to be permitted in Los Angeles County.  Hopefully, with these changes, they will become a lot more common!

Want the down and dirty?  Read the press release and the current CA Gray Water Code.