Greywater System to Cut Water Usage

, by Shinekwa Kershaw, Contributing writer

Earth House, a program house for students who wish to lead an environmentally conscious lifestyle, is making new strides in monitoring and conserving its water usage. This year, the house hopes to implement a greywater system, which involves reusing water from the sink faucet to flush the toilet.

Josh Levine ’12, manager of Earth House, read a New York Times article a few weeks ago on the SEED House, a theme-house focused on sustainable living at Oberlin College. A video accompanying the article inspired the members of Earth House to start researching a greywater system.

“Some kids at Oberlin did it and Josh talked about how we need to step up our game,” said Cathryn Herlihey ’12, a member of Earth House. “I just looked up how a toilet works and it’s pretty simple.”

Herlihey researched the topic and came up with a plan to implement the greywater system at Earth House. Herlihey and Levine explained that a pipe is removed from under the sink in the bathroom, which allows dirty water to flow directly from the faucet to a bucket underneath the sink. The mechanism in the toilet, which refills the tank whenever the lever is pushed, is propped up so that no fresh water is released into the bowl. When it is time to flush the toilet, the water, which collects in the bucket under the sink, is poured into the tank instead. Each time this is done, up to two gallons of fresh water is saved.

By reusing water, Earth House’s water usage will be cut in half.

“It’s such a simple process that I wanted to be hands on about it and do it ourselves—take responsibility for our own living,” Herlihey said.

Physical Plant has requested more information on the greywater system. Earth House hopes that Physical Plant will soon approve the project. Initially, one bathroom on the first floor of the house will be using the greywater system. Pending its success, greywater will later be used in the two other bathrooms.

“The idea behind greywater is that there is no real reason for us to be using and disposing of fresh water,” Levine said. “So instead we’ll be using the water we wash our hands and brush our teeth with from the sink faucet to go to the bathroom. [This way] we’re not flushing fresh water unnecessarily.”

The promise of using greywater won’t necessarily be measured in monetary saving, but the system promises to have environmental benefits.

“A lot of people who are interested in water conservation do the ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down’ thing, which is a little nastier,” Herlihey said. “But this is much more effective.”

  • Chuck Vindaloo

    Where did the statistic that water usage will be cut in half come from?

  • David Lott, ’65

    “I just looked up how a toilet works and it’s pretty simple.”

    There is just no end to the learning opportunities at Wesleyan.

    By the way, is there a shortage of fresh water in central Connecticut? Because this little self congratulatory effort is not reducing pollutants one iota.

  • Anonymous

    Why not take it up a notch and build an outhouse. You could poop in a hole and not use any water.

  • Chris from Water Legacy

    Why not follow the IAPMO and UPC and seek out already manufactured qualified products for your greywater reuse? It is called the WL 55 and is available at http://www.waterlegacy.com

  • Erin from Bloomington, IL

    There’s nothing gross about not flushing when it’s yellow!!!!!!! I do it all the time at home and actually quite frequently in public rest rooms or friends’ houses who don’t mind.

    Chris: I think these simpler techniques are just as good, if not, better than the manufactured systems (provided you don’t mind manually pouring water along with the way it looks). It’s cheaper and it requires no filtration or treatment of the water. On top of that, it’s easier to spot if you need some maintenance done, which isn’t likely with such a simple system. It probably is more difficult to know if a system in your basement has a problem than one right in front of you every time you use the bathroom. I have a similar system at home. We collect water below the sink in a bucket and then dump it in the toilet bowl. Actually, I’ve heard that dumping water into the tank itself can eventually cause damage.

    David Lott: Actually, conserving water reduces the amount of dirty water getting sent to wastewater facilities. This makes the treatment more effective and improves water quality. And though greywater re-use is still on a small scale, reducing water consumption can reduce water demand, leaving more water in our watersheds, making pollutants less concentrated.

    Also, though I live in Illinois and don’t know much about water in Connecticut, most people think that there’s nothing to fear here in terms of water conservation. The truth of the matter, however, is that we are rapidly depleting our watersheds. Our population, water use and pollution continue to grow and I’m pretty worried about the future myself.

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