Water Legacy is very pleased at the comments made by the council members, that is that their constituents have expressed a need for this.  The people do matter!!  Our conservation and efficiency demands on our government will create the grass roots efforts for continued saving of fresh water!

According to the Austin Statesman - the local newspaper - the council has added some considerations to the ordinance, but all in all it is a very good message for the water conservationists.

“In addition, the proposed ordinance stipulates that gray water must be applied in a way that prevents pooling and runoff onto other properties. Clack said the ordinance primarily targets new home construction.

“We’re encouraging builders to install new gray water plumbing,” Clack said. But there are no incentives currently planned for builders or residents, he said.

For commercial and industrial applications, gray water can only be used for landscape maintenance, dust control and toilet flushing.

Council member John Thomaides said that the ordinance is one that residents have pushed for in the past.

“Citizens have communicated to me through the years that they want to capture laundry water, mostly for gardening,” Thomaides said. “If homeowners want to use it to save aquifer water, it’s a good thing. (The ordinance) gives us the ability to tell people how to use it.”

To read the whole article, click on this link: 

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/san-marcos-to-consider-gray-water-ordinance-811895.html?cxtype=rss_local

Added to the site last week, Water Legacy is the only greywater re-use system on this site. 

Follow this link to visit the site:  

http://www.greencollareconomy.com/Green_Directory/environment/water-efficiency-%26-technology/greywater-management/water-legacy/details/

Greywater recycling, conservation through re-use in irrigation, eco-faucets and high efficiency plumbing are the starting blocks. However; serious efforts need to be made in municipal use, power plant cooling and industrial applications. Total water consumption is projected to increase, not decrease by 2050 by 12% for municipal use and electric cooling.  Agriculture, livestock, irrigation and mining is expected to remain relatively the same.  We can have an effect on our municipal use through greywater recycling by using our shower and washing machine water to flush our toilets. We can impact usage individually. Domestic greywater recycling has reduced our family’s overall use by at least 40%, but not everyone is married to the designer of the WL55.   

To read more about this topic visit this website: http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/watersustainability/files/WaterRisk.pdf

View this article at http://www.holmesmagazine.com/moremike_waterways.php.

The WL55 from Water legacy saves an average household 30%-40% of its residential water consumption!  Now that is saving water

Let me know what you think.

Rob Stevens, our lone house hold in Nebraska, added this comment:

1 Comments

We Americans are a people that are the most giving and charitable on this planet, yet we waste more than some will ever have.  You cannot give water to other nations and people in need, but you can conserve for our future.  Please check out this link http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/water-solutions/just-the-facts-water-footprints from YES magazine’s new issue to see how much we consume and think that we could save 30 to 40% of our personal residential use by recycling our greywater to flush our toilets. 

Greywater and greywater reuse present an opportunity for consumers to reduce overall energy consumption.  We often times do not value water movement associated to energy conservation.  But if you use water in your home twice, as you do with the water legacy greywater resuse system, your contribution to the carbon footprint is less.

So, when I read the article from River Network, I was so thrilled to realize others are of the same mind set and can imagine a time when flushing drinking water is obsolete.

“Some day in the not too distant future, our practice of flushing toilets with drinking water will be viewed as being as archaic as using pigeons to carry text messages, as wasteful as sending every bottle and can to the landfill, and as disgusting as dumping raw sewage into rivers and lakes. Toilet flushing and numerous other water uses in and around the home do not require high-quality, expensive drinking water. Simple home graywater systems can meet these needs perfectly well – and dramatically reduce pressures on drinking water supplies.”

Visit http://www.rivernetwork.org/ to view the whole article. 

In Chaper 3, Renewable Energy, the authors not only mention the WL55 and Water Legacy’s greywater reuse system, but displays two color photographs of the WL55 installed in a Zero Carbon Initiative home in Boulder, Colorado.  (page 151)

To order this book, which is a ‘Complete Guide to Energy Self Sufficiency at Home’, contact your local bookseller and request the ISBN number above or contact Taunton Press at www.taunton.com to order direct.