The Bull in Full

Full

I made the prediction at Barry's yesterday, and while it wasn't exactly going out on a limb, it looks like Durham's reservoirs are finally topped off:

Lake Elevations

Lake Michie Elevation: 341.00 feet, mean sea level.
Lake Michie is full at 341.00 feet, mean sea level.

Little River Reservoir Elevation: 355.00 feet, msl.
Little River Reservoir is full at 355.00 feet, msl.

Matt Dees at the N&O notes the same thing, and hints that we may finally be ready to back off of water restrictions.

On the one hand, despite the soggy weekend, we're not out of pretty bad drought conditions.  The historic low flows in the Flat and Little Rivers before this heavy rain testify to the fact that the groundwater and the underground aquifers are simply a long ways from being fully recharged yet.  But when you're spilling water over the dam, it would seem to make some sense to take a step back, not all the way to baseline, non-drought conservation measures, but to at least let people water their gardens twice a week.  I mean, we're all happy to chip in when we're in a pinch, but loosen up the taps just a little at least. [where: 27701]

Gray water article on Weather Channel's site

Not many posts this week due to being slammed with a bunch of work and non-work stuff.  Fortunately, someone else has written stuff for you to read!

Claire Campbell at the Weather Channel's Forecast Earth site just put up an article on gray water that features yours truly as the case study, with more good info about gray water.

Grey Water: Breakin' the Law!

So, like many people in North Carolina, I've been getting pretty crazy with my attempts to save water.  Most things I'm doing are pretty typical -- including catching the water I have to run off to clear the lines for hot water, using the cutoff valve on my shower head, and all that.  One experiment I tried this weekend was to take my 22 quart canner and set it on top of the washing machine, then pull out the drain hose out of the fixture in the wall (funny thing if you've never done this -- your washer drain hose typically just sits loosely stuck down a PVC pipe hole, without any threading or anything) and hung it over the side.  Then, as I ran a load of clothes in my super water efficient front loading machine, I just bailed the "grey water" out of it as the machine ran, and took it outside and put it on my plants.

Now, I did first check to make sure that the detergent I was using wasn't going to be horrible for my plants.  Granted, it's probably not great, but most of the soils in my yard are the typical red or grey ultisols that are typical of the area, although the area around the bog garden is significantly more alluvial.  (Sorry, geeking out again...)  These are the kinds of soils you typically put lime on to raise the pH, so adding some organic bases in the form of BioPac laundry detergent might even help break up the clay a bit.   In some ways, I was a little alarmed at just how much water was coming out of the drain, even on my water efficient model.  I had to bail rather quickly, particularly after the wash cycle, to keep up.  However, I ended up being able to give my younger trees and a few of the herbs I'm trying to keep alive until next year a good healthy dousing.

It wasn't until afterwards, when I was thinking about how I might be able to install a full grey water system on my house and doing some Googling on such, that I realized that I was breaking the law.  Grey water can be a public health hazard, particularly when it's spread on the surface.  The primary concern is water from kitchen sinks, dishwashers, and showers, which can contain high amounts of organic solids and can lead to the spread of dangerous bacteria.  (Toilet water is considered "black water," and is, of course, right out.)  Some states have adopted regulations for installing grey water treatment systems, but  North Carolina isn't one of them. 

Granted, I don't think the police will be showing up at my door any time soon.  Washing machine water, from what I can tell, is one of the least dangerous forms of grey water, and given that I'm pretty certain absolutely none of it is going to make it past all of the incredibly thirsty plants and into my ditch, where my bog garden would suck up anything that was left, I'm probably okay.  But as we all rush to find ways to conserve water, sometimes we trip over regulations we never realized were there.