Greywater, sometimes also spelled as
graywater,
grey water or
gray water, is all of the effluent water from a household, such as water discharged from lavatories (bathroom sinks), bathtubs, showers, clothes washers, and laundry trays. Greywater is not wastewater from a sink used for food preparation, or water closet (
toilet) wastewater.
The water leaving our homes carries nutrients and value. It may also contain pathogens, and/or harsh chemicals and care should be taken with it. However, it is not a great risk compared to blackwater (sewage).
Redirecting the water we use for tasks such as showering allows us to reclaim some of that value to grow plants and recharge the water table. It may be necessary to choose our soaps and detergents more carefully, if we use the greywater for watering and fertilizing plants.
The
Samoa Hostel Truth Tank Greywater System was designed to provide a greywater treatment system for a satellite solar shower located on the grounds of the Somoa Hostel. The system was designed to follow California greywater standards while also meeting the criteria of the
Humboldt Bay Center for Sustainable Living. After careful consideration of alternative solutions, a final design was chosen and constructed at a private home for testing before its eventual implementation at the Samoa Hostel in the spring of 2011.
The Humboldt Bay Center for Sustainable Living is constructing a hostel at the Samoa Cookhouse to serve as inexpensive lodging for travelers as well as an experiential education opportunity in sustainable living and historical restoration. The hostel will include campsites, which have their own solar powered shower facility. The greywater produced by the shower will be treated and disposed of by the Truth Tank Greywater System.The system will be tested by using it with a claw foot bath tub before moving it to the Samoa Hostel for use with the solar shower.
