Hello there
I have used some grey water in the past, not for the reasons you
mention but as a garden supplement during dry spells, However I also
did not have the storage situation you are asking about as use was
relatively fast. Most of the time within an hour or so. At the time,
I also did not know what a risk I was taking. I simply took it
outside and dumped it on the plants. I later found out why some of
the plants died. Alkalinity was the factor involved there.
To start, we will cover some of the information about grey water as
provided by the Department of Health - Western Australia. While this
is information you may already have, I am going to include as it may
be material not already familiar to others reading this answer who are
considering the possibility of using grey water themselves.
First of all, grey water is a health hazard right from the start
without any storage. Unless stored frozen or at near the boiling
point, they grey water can, and does, act as an incubating medium for
all sorts of nasty things and the advancement of their growth can be
quite severe before any obvious change takes place. Even at the
start, greywater contains high amounts of pathogenic micro-organism,
bacterias, protozoa, viruses, parasites, etc, enough to present a
health risk. All forms of grey water are highly potential
transmitters of disease. And even though grey water is not sewage in
the sense that water from the toilet would be, all grey water from
baths, showers, and laundry does contain some fecal matter. It is
unavoidable. Grey water, depending on the source, also contains oils,
fats, detergents, soaps, nutrients, salts, particles of hair, food and
lint.
While there are treatment options, these are usually too expensive for
home use. If you do decide to use a treatment option to increase
storage life, just remember: - - "It requires installation by a
qualified plumber and approval from the Water corporation and health
department." - Quote from Department of Health - Western Australia -
http://www.ecwa.asn.au/info/watercons3.html
The 24 hour limit on storing grey water is excellent advice or even
excellent legislation. Grey water can reach an exceedingly dangerous
state of contamination without any outward change in looks, odor, or
noticable increase of gas emission. If it reaches any of those
stages, you are already dealing with a microbial stew from Hell and
not just grey water that is at the "beginning" of its putrification
process.
And believe me, I am familiar with microbial stews from Hell. Some
people refer to them as more than five Google Answer Researchers all
trying to speak at once.
Though your question asks only about grey water being used for toilet
flushing, I will cover some of the other uses as well, just in case
your drought gets worse and you need to expand grey water usage into
other areas.
Using grey water in the garden can be safe as long as certain
precautions are followed. As I mentioned above, I didn't follow them,
didn't even know about them, and lost several plants, a couple of
which were quite expensive.
Never use wastewater on the garden that comes from the kitchen sink.
It contains a heavy load of organic material, fats and caustic
additives. Use instead grey water from the bath or shower, laundry,
or the bathroom hand basin. Do not allow it to pool on the ground as
nasty bacteria can grow in the standing water, and keep it away from
where kids play or pets and other animals might drink or wallow. Acid
requiring plants like azaleas, begonias, ferns, etc will suffer from
too much greywatering and eventually give up all together as mine did.
Most plants not requiring an acid soil will probably not be effected.
You should not use gray water from laundry that includes nappies and
soiled underwear. You should immediately stop using it if anybody in
your house comes down with an infectious disease such as diarrhoea,
hepatitis or intestional parasites.
Too heavy a use of grey water for irrigation may also clog the soil
with lint and other debris actually making the ground water repellent.
It will also smell when this happens, lead to pooling, attract
insects and cause other environmental damage.
If you are going to water the garden with grey water, there are a few
things you can do to make life easier for your plants. Use only
biodegradable detergent and other products. Laundry products with low
phosphorus, sodium, boron, chlorine and borax should only be used.
Bleaches and fabric softeners may be used but only in minimal amounts.
If possible, I would not use them at all.
And last of all for this section on grey water irrigation. If your
neighbor's garden is drying out or wilting on the vine, please do not
offer to share. Keep your grey water on your own property.
Now that I have covered the above - You should know that use of grey
water for gardens is currently illegal in all Australian states.
One of the most simple ways of seeing if your stored grey water is
becoming septic is to look for bugs. You might need a microscope or a
powerful magnifying glass, but some kind of insects have eggs which
will hatch within 24 hours of depositing them. You could say these
bugs and larvae are sort of like using canaries down in a mine. They
are the first warnings of deteriorating quality.
You are asking about the definition of the term "septic chemically."
It is the same as the term for septicity. Septicity in the condition
in which organic matter decomposes to form foul-smelling products
associated with the absence of free oxygen along with creating a high
oxygen demand. In a shortened version, septicity is a condition
produced by the growth of anaerobic organisms. Your grey water can
reach a low oxygen and high septic level before exhibiting any obvious
external signs. If severe, the grey water turns black, gives off
foul-odors and contains little or no dissolved oxygen.
This leads us to our next test for septicity which is the measurement
of dissolved oxygen in the water you have stored. The organic
material in untreated grey water will consume the available oxygen,
causing the water to go septic. While septicity is an "end point"
with the associated discoloration and odor, the danger zone for use
around humans and animals is reached and passed long before the
chemical changes reach obvious stages.
You may also have the water tested for oxygen demand. This is usually
referred to as a BOD5 test. BOD5 stands for Biochemical Oxygen
Demand. The test is taken over a period of 5 days at a temperature of
20 degrees C. It is the leading test for the quality of wastewater.
However, because of your 24 hour time constraint, it would be
impractical for your needs. However, I am including it here for one
major reason. In your question, you state that your experience with
storing water shows that septic changes don't take place within that
24 hour period, or as you put it "My experience is that this is not
true." You may want to have such a test beginning on the first day
and see just where you are at 5 days later. I'm sure you will be in
for some major surprises.
Another "gas" test is the TOC. Total Organic Carbon test which
converts organic carbon to carbon dioxide which is then measured.
This test takes only ten minutes to complete. While this test takes
a short time to complete, it along with the others covered, are not
necessarily things you can do yourself at home, unless of course you
are an organic chemist with a full lab set up in your basement. You
will find that while these are all simple measurements as you
requested, simplicity is relative.
You may find additional information about the above tests including
technical information and testing formulas. There is also a very
brief mention of electrical conductivity as a testing proceedure used
in conjunction with the others. This is a downloadable "DOC"
file.http://www.csupomona.edu/~fjjanger/ce432/432_0123_2002.doc
Any kind of standardized "home test," simple or not, would be next to
impossible to create. First of all, even if it were a simple test for
alkalinity or acidity, each batch of grey water will be different in
the amount of material it contains. No two loads of laundry are
exactly alike, no two hand washings are exactly alike, no two baths
are exactly alike. It is the inability to have a standardized "base"
from which to take measurements that causes the hurdles. It is sort
of like curing the "common cold." There are hundreds of viruses, each
a different disease, which all gives the synptoms of the common cold.
It is impossible to create a "one size fits all" cure or vaccine.
Once again to your observation that grey water can be stored for
longer than 24 hours. It is true that grey water takes about 5 days
to decompose. But I want to emphasize once again, it poses a danger
from the start and very dangerous levels of anaerobic bacteria as well
as normally toxic bacterias and other micro-organisms will be present
without showing you any changes in color, odor, or any other visable
sign. I'm sorry I keep coming back to this, but from the nature of
your question, I feel it is the most important point I can try to get
across. the information about the decomposition time for grey water
is included in an article found here:
http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/bourke/arch672/fall2002/precip.htm -
School of Architecture, McGill University
A web search on "grey water" "greywater" "gray water" or "gray water"
will yield hundreds of examples of treatment systems, testing systems,
and more. As this website says, much of this information is from the
early 70s when grey water was first becoming the recycling rage and is
not printed on the web as "cutting edge" in spite of having been
discredited and disregarded in the field for twenty years or more.
You can look over much of this information found as a series of
reports and articles.
http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/misinfo/index.htm - "Common Grey
Water MIstakes and Practices" - From Oasis Systems, a commercial site
with a lot of good information about grey water in general as well as
treatment systems should you be interested.
Additional information may be found here:
http://www.greywater.com/ - a good general overview of grey water use
- "Grey Water Irrigation - Grey Waste Treatment
And here:
http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/index.htm - another good general
overview of grey water use - "Grey Water Central" - a link to a
specific page of this website is included in the text above.
Other websites used in a greater or lesser degree in composing the
answer:
http://www.glanbrookconservation.on.ca/water.html - Glanbrook
Conservation Committee, Water Quality
http://www.greenplumbers.com.au/02caring/advice/advice03.htm - Caring
for Our Water - Grey Water
http://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch08/marshall/ - Greywater RE-Use:
Hardware, Health, Environment And The Law - From the Permaculture
Association of Western Australia Inc. - This is the website where I
found that the use of grey water for gardens is illegal in all
Australian states.
http://www.environment.act.gov.au/wastewaterreuseforirrigationepp.pdf
- This site is a PDF file, so Acrobat Reader will be needed. If you
don't already have one, it can be downloaded for free. - This is text
from the Environmental Act of 1999 by the Australian Government.
So to summarize. Yes there are tests that can be used to determine
the septic qualitys of grey water. Yes, they are relatively simple.
No, they are not designed for home use. Yes, there are external signs
such as color change and odor. By the time you notice them, the water
is already far beyond dangerous. The water reaches that point before
external signs begin to show.
Please don't take a chance. Throw out the water as the health
authorities instruct you to. Don't trust the judgement of your eyes
and nose. I would like to see you back here someday still happy and
healthy.
Search - Google
Terms - grey water, greywater, gray water, graywater, grey water
health hazards, storing grey water, grey water systems, grey water use
legality, recycling grey water, water recycling
If I may clarify anything before you rate the answer, please ask.
Now, I'm off to water my daffodills, with the garden hose.
Cheers
digsalot |
