Calling armchair lawyers - dumping grey water

kmessinger · 06-19-2008, 10:43 AM

Hi all. Can anyone say definitively that dumping grey water is illegal in your state?

I was told it is legal (or not illegal) in every state except Alaska. I carry an extra 11 gallon tank for grey water overruns and I would like to leave it home on the trip to Alaska.

While it is greatly FROWNED upon here in California, I have seen signs not to dump grey water only in state parks.

Regards,

Keith
41 days and a wake-up until Alaska

Jeffrey · 06-19-2008, 12:28 PM

Environmental awareness of what YOU have in your greywater should help an intelligent person make the correct decision. Unfortunately, that counts out most of the population!

I use biodegradable soaps, and minimally. I use no greases or oils in cooking and I wipe off most dishes with paper towels that get trashed. My greywater is barely grey, so I dump where I believe it will properly filter into the ground and affect no one.

kmessinger · 06-19-2008, 12:37 PM

Hi Jeffrey! I am not talking of the pros and cons, rights and wrongs etc. I think we all have opinions that we are convinced are right.

What I am looking for is whether it is legal or not. I have heard for instance that on most BLM land it is ok but in this age of enviromentalism who knows?

I have been at beach areas that have a shower for washing off, yet if you use your SMB outside shower on the street adjacent to the beach you are the lowest form of scum on the planet.

Regards,
Keith

Greg In Austin · 06-19-2008, 06:09 PM

I can talk specifically about our local regulations and a few places i have looked into the topic,.... but generally GREY water is not a problem to let drain out onto the ground surface. The idea is that GREY water is water with water from washing (hands, body, and clothes). It is NOT water that could be classified as BLACK, and it gernally does not contain organic materials (like food scraps).

Here is Austin, as long as it is not plumbed, I can drain such water out onto the ground through a normal garden hose without issue.

I would NOT want to dump GREY water out in front of a Park Ranger, but this water is really no different than washing your hands at the ed of a hose, or using an outdoor shower. I would not feel bad at all about allowing our GREY water to drain onto the ground even in a park.

We had a similar issue when deciding whether to include the normal grey water tank in our build. It is nice to have, but does take up some valuable real estate. After looking into the issues we chose to leave it out of our build.

AND SMB TX got creative for us. We looked under the van and talked about what we were going to do. We would have the normal drain line, and the volume it has to store grey water. This would work fine for washing hands on the road. We would have the normal drain valve and end cover. After a little thinking we realized that there is a small spot just rearward of where the drain goes through the floor at the forward end of the rear wheel well that might fit a small tank.

They decided to see what they could do. I was hoping for a small half gallon or gallon tank. They found a 2 gallon tank that fits perfectly and looks like it was made to go there.

Soooo we now have a 2 gallon grey water tank and still have all the inside real estate free.

.

deminimis · 06-26-2008, 02:24 PM

My grey water is usually made up of the warm beer left in the bottom of beer bottles. I've always figured fish like beer as evidenced by the phrase, "drinks like a fish."

Christopher Thwaites · 06-26-2008, 03:04 PM

I'd have to say it's always been kind of a..... grey area for me! Ask any good lawyer and he will tell you "it depends".

mmocken · 06-27-2008, 08:14 AM

There are 2 seperate issues here.

Fresh graywater is very low in bacteria.
Old greywater and/or tank residuals are loaded with who knows what.

I don't think you can have a rule to distinguish the two when it comes from a tank.

A porta-shower or temporary storage should be OK

stiggs · 06-27-2008, 03:02 PM

that reminds me I forgot to dump the tank from last weeks camping trip...

Last May when the wife and were traveling up the coast, I did not have the proper hose to dump at the rv park, so I killed two birds with one stone by going to a coin op car wash opening my dump valve and washing the bugs off the van

geoffff · 06-27-2008, 08:13 PM

I've always wondered what the right thing to do with my greywater is. When at all possible, I usually try to dump it when I'm also dumping my portapottie at an RV dump station. If that's not possible, I sometimes open it so it's draining slowly and let it drizzle out over several miles of some not scenic road.

-- Geoff