Emergency  Greywater Policy Reform & Jobs Program:

by Daniel Brodell-Lake

To reduce household consumption really only has an effect on 10% of the water usage, because industry and agriculture use the rest.  Although a small portion, it still represents a need for policy change, jobs and urban adaptation that is needed during this drought.  

Laundry-to-Landscape, gravity fed branch drains from showers, routing downspouts to planter beds and other affordable and ecological techniques are ready to be installed, yet still semi-illegal.  Many cities and counties have costly permits to install such systems, which is discouraging.  The new Greywater Policy Reform has to incentivize, rather than discourage the usage of greywater.  

I propose an “Emergency Greywater Policy Reform & Jobs Program” to address jobs, drought, recharging groundwater, reducing loads on municipal systems and training a modern workforce all at once.  With this policy reform we can legalize the intelligent re-use of 10% of the state's water on site.  Perhaps a sister policy reform will mandate mulching and drip systems for industrial agriculture, however, it is important to focus on greywater and push greywater reform through.  

Rain Gardens, Mulch Basins, Laundry to Landscape systems and other low cost and low tech strategies must be outlined in detail so that landscaping contractors, plumbers and other contractors in the field may offer these services to clients.  City, County and State rebates and incentives must be made available for homeowners who choose to become part of the solution, just as we now have rebates for irrigated lawn removal.  By making these lawn removal rebates available, we have addressed part of the problem on the urban scale, but neglected to address the solutions.  What I propose is to effectively address one of the biggest solutions concerning household consumption in the form of a statewide emergency legislation.

 Gov. Jerry Brown did indeed speak of emergency drought legislation, however, this legislation did not touch upon Greywater, which comprises a practical solution to recharge aquifers, reuse household water on site, reduce loads on municipal water treatment plants, save money on irrigation, and create local green jobs.  Let's do it!