HANDLING GRAY WATER SURPLUS TOMATOES AND YOUNG HENS

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Dear Mother:

I love the magazine and enjoyed the article on yurt living ("A New Life on the Rio Grande") in the September 1999 issue. In the article, author Lisa Mower mentions "an easily constructed five-gallon bucket filter that goes beneath the kitchen sink. It is supposed to filter out particles, fats and gunk before the water goes to the garden... "How can I find out about this homemade filter? It's exactly what we need here, for our water recycling projects in Mexico!

Gina Bisaillon
Instituto de Permacultura
de Mexico
San Jose de Gracia, Mexico

Your question brings up "gray water" management - an environmentally sensible system where wash and cooking water is segregated from human waste and disposed of independently. In the process, human waste never mixes with the drinking water supply, but is left to decay naturally back to soil in an earth closet, privy or outhouse (located at least 100 feet from a water source), in a composting toilet or in a separate flow of "black water" that is treated in a competent belowground anaerobic septic system. Water used to wash diapers, sickroom linens or bandages should also be treated as black water. Only if boiled the old-time way with lye soap or modern antibacterial detergent for ten minutes can this contaminated wash water be disposed of nonseptically.

A five-gallon under-sink water filter can be adequate for a small sink that is used sparingly and cleaned often, but a 20-gallon or greater capacity is better.

Find a stout plastic or metal container with a tight-fitting but removable lid. You'll also need a few feet of plastic plumbing pipe of the same diameter as your sink's drain pipe, a 90° elbow, a cap and grommets to fit where pipe enters/exits the container and cement and fittings as needed.

Install a conventional "S" trap below the sink and run the drain straight down through a snug-fitting (preferably grommeted) hole in the lid and almost to the bottom of the container. Run the outflow pipe horizontally through a watertight (well-grommeted or cemented) hole in the side of the container, an inch up from the bottom. Put a 90° elbow on the inner end of the outflow so it faces up vertically. Into the top of the elbow, insert a length of pipe long enough to reach within two inches of the top of the container. Cap the upper end and drill a series of small (3/8"-diameter) holes in the upper two or three inches of this pipe.

Pouring around the pipes, fill the bottom third of the container with coarse crushed rock, the middle third with stream-run gravel, then cover the cap on the outflow tube with coarse sand. If the sand is finer than the holes drilled in the top of the outflow tube, cover the holes with a single-layer wrap of coffee filter paper held on with a rubber band or wire.

Water runs down to the bottom of the container, rising in time through filtering agents to flow through the holes drilled in the outflow. Lead the water to your recycling tanks. Since it contains some fertilizer, it will be good for watering the garden. If you use biodegradable, low-phosphate cleansers, it should not contaminate the groundwater or runoff.

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