#greywater — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #greywater, aggregated by home.social.
-
Research - #RainBarrels and Other Household Stormwater Strategies Are Working — For Now.
May 5, 2026
Excerpt: " 'When we talk about #CircularEconomy, most people think about #recycling waste and materials. But the concept of circular economy also applies to water. Here we're talking about installing #rainwater #cisterns, reusing water from the sink to flush toilets and using water-efficient appliances. While those may seem like small steps at the individual level, we found that if they are widely adopted, they can have a significant collective impact,' said Fernanda Cruz Rios, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering, who was a co-author of the research. 'They help reduce demand on the municipal supply, and the energy needed to treat and distribute that water. But what we found was that these strategies offer a real double benefit. In areas like #PhiladelphiaPA and #CamdenME, that are particularly vulnerable due to their proximity to large bodies of water, we were able to see a meaningful reduction in flooding volumes when circular water strategies were adopted.'
"Despite the ongoing compliance efforts, the cities of Philadelphia and Camden have around 16 billion gallons of combined #sewer overflow, according to reports from their respective water utilities.
"Over the last two and a half decades, Camden has established a stormwater management plan, including decentralized strategies, an upgrade to #stormwater infrastructure and storm water management modeling. To understand the overall impact of these efforts, in hopes of applying findings to other vulnerable urban areas, the Drexel team created a computer model of stormwater movement using data from Cramer Hill, a neighborhood of Camden in the state’s 'coastal hazard zone' that is highly susceptible to tidal and storm-surge flooding.
"The researchers structured the model so that it could quantify the distinct effects of outdoor strategies (cisterns and rain barrels) and indoor strategies — efficient fixtures and reusing sink wash water (#greywater) for toilet flushing. It simulated and measured the effect of 16 different combinations of strategies, ranging from rain barrels of different sizes, to varying levels of adoption of water-efficient fixtures and greywater reuse."Each scenario was simulated using precipitation and tidal data from 2014 as a baseline and flooding measurements projected at locations across the neighborhood and at five stormwater outfall areas that contribute to combined sewer overflow discharges into the #DelawareRiver.
The results show that the combination of retrofitting homes with #WaterEfficientFixtures as well as installing rain barrels and practicing greywater reuse, when adopted by 75% of households, could reduce the volume of combined sewer overflows by as much as 11% and the volume of #floodwaters by up to 13%.
" 'This finding is an important and encouraging piece of information for municipalities that are facing similar challenges,' Marques said. 'Although broad adoption of these measures can be challenging to achieve, confirmation of its effectiveness may help to make the case.' "
#SolarPunkSunday #ClimateChangeAdaptation #Graywater #StormwaterSeparation #StormwaterReduction #WaterCisterns #UrbanPlanning #WaterUse #WaterIsLife #ClimateChange
-
Well, I did NOT finish my #SolarPunk jobs list. But it's on my To Do list... Next week, I'll plan on focusing on #WaterStorage and #Reuse -- #Greywater, #Rainbarrels, #Cisterns, etc., since #Maine is still experiencing a #Drought (despite all the snow), and other places are as well. I know I'll be pestering our Town Manager about getting some rainbarrels and #GreenMachine composters at cost for the local residents.
Boosting some posts from yesterday. I hope you'll join us next #SolarPunkSunday!
[Image source: altered, decommidified screenshot from a Chobani commercial. Found via oneearth.org/solarpunk ]
-
Apparently chaotic gardening that is actually quite intentional:
We are digging the greywater channel deeper after adding a charcoal & rock base biofilter. This aims to reduce soil salting by minimizing water evaporation directly from the channel and forcing the water to be pulled *up* through the soil via the plant roots. Current seedlings in this basin are getting top water but when their roots can be expected to be slightly deeper they'll be left to only seek water from the saturated soil below. Initially I wanted to optimize for a proper floodplain but now I think intentionally incising the channel may be a strategy so long as matting roots can hold the bank against rains - we'll just have to see!
The squash mostly killed off by frost was pruned back, and the volunteer plants are frequently cut back and their stems used for mulch - you can see the slight mulch layer being built from vegetation in this site. The squash is trying to put on baby leaves again but the weather has been erratic so I'm fine if it just decomposes in place and doesn't come back, another round of beans, squash, and corn has been planted nearby and if the weather is conducive to getting a head start on the season we will have much more to harvest this fall.
The other side of the basin was seed blasted and is being mulched over with animal bedding and manure.
For this season this basin holds mostly cover crops sown for animal feed or milling, but when we can afford to we will be starting a series of trees in this basin to establish more permanent cover. Ultimately this will do more to avoid soil salting and nutrient loss, but for now simply establishing roots and working on soil restoration is a good start, especially where we can get a useful yield and bring down the cost to raise our animals.
#permaculture #earthworks #greywater #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Farming #SmallFarm #FoodSovereignty #NativeOwned #Indigenous #RegenerativeAg #Gardening