Being
Water:
Advancing Rainwater Collection & Toiletology
Story
by K. Andarin Arvola
Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water,
everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The problem of fresh water consumption by the human population of
this world has been on the minds of many people and for many years.
Each year the worldwide fresh water shortage just gets worse.
The World Health Organization states that five is the minimum number
of gallons of fresh water needed to meet a person’s daily needs.
In Los Angeles the average number of gallons used by a single resident
is 122 gallons. And it’s not just in southern California. Is
it any wonder we have a shortage?
People do want to help. In a recent survey by the Association of California
Water Agencies they found that 61 percent of California residents ranked “having
sufficient water supplies” near the top of their concerns, while
85 percent expressed a willingness to make significant changes in household
water use.
“We, as humans, need to practice wise use of water resources,” Bruce
Broderick of Being Water (LLC) in Fort Bragg informs me. “We
take it for granted, because we see clean water coming out every time
we turn on a faucet, there’s a never-ending supply.”
I’m keenly aware of there not being a never-ending supply. August
and September and sometimes October are lean water months because I
have an old-fashioned, slow-filling spring box. There’s adequate
water but not an abundance. Water in general, and saving water in particular
are passions of mine. Talking to the Brodericks, Eileen and Bruce,
was enlightening.
Water, water
Two years ago Eileen and Bruce Broderick attended a workshop called
Backcasting 2020. The goal was to look into the future and ask the
question: How do we want to live here on the coast in the year 2020?
The workshop considered such items as food, energy independence,
transportation, infrastructure, water and social networks.
What struck the Brodericks was the water aspect. Bruce had been a building
contractor in Butte County, California for twenty plus years and then
on the north coast since moving here in 2004. He was used to solving
a multitude of problems.
Bruce began by doing research on “gray water” which, he
explains, is any water from a shower, tub, sinks or washing machine
that does not have contaminates such as food particles.
Gray water is literally a “gray” area because of the limitations
of state and local rules. “It just isn’t economically feasible,” Bruce
tells me. There is a new state law that allows gray water from washing
machines, with some restrictions, for landscape irrigation which is
the only practical application. It isn’t a good idea to use gray
water for a vegetable garden, he says.
After he realized the limitations of gray water retrieval, Bruce turned
to fresh water conservation. “We need to have respect for the
fresh water and the infrastructure we have in place.”
Toiletologists
Toiletology, Bruce tells me (tongue firmly in cheek), is the study
of toilets.
Who studies toilets? Who wants to?
Most of us don’t even think about them—unless we have to.
However, the Brodericks think about and study toilets because of water.
Bruce was struck by the fact that toilets consume up to 30 percent
of the water used in U.S. homes. Even the newer low-flush toilets with
smaller tanks use too much water, contends Bruce.
What they found out was that a thirty-dollar toilet system was more
economical and practical than some six thousand-dollar gray water systems.
That dual-flush toilet system was named One2flush™—which
says it all. Turn the toilet handle left for a half flush to dispose
of liquid waste, turn the handle right for a full flush to dispose
of solid waste. Most families won’t agree to use the drought-inspired
method of “if it’s yellow, it’s mellow; if it’s
brown, flush it down”. It’s an aesthetic sensibility.
Bruce says One2flush is the most inexpensive way to save a significant
amount of water and money. It installs in about thirty minutes and
can fit into almost any existing toilet.
Then, a typical family of four people can save about ten thousand gallons
of water a year which, if you’re paying for it, is a savings
in money as well.
On a larger scale, it not only saves water but reduces the flow into
an individual or small community septic or sewerage system. In large
towns and cities the savings could be substantial, especially because
of a reduced need for treatment of waste water.
Saving water is not always embraced by municipal water systems, because
like many things, the system argues for itself. There’s not an
incentive for water companies to support this idea. High base rates
benefit the water company but not consumers. They’re making money
by selling water and by charging for sewerage disposal.
That “throne” we sit on in the bathroom? That porcelain
toilet takes a tremendous amount of energy to manufacture. High heat
is needed to fire porcelain; huge kilns are used, heated to 2,400 degrees
[Fahrenheit], then slowly cooled down, over sixty hours (two-and-one-half
days), to 200 degrees. Then there is the transportation costs from
the production facilities in, usually, China or Mexico; a modern toilet
weighs eighty to one hundred pounds.
Another consideration—see I told you they think about toilets—is
that there’s the problem of disposing of an old toilet. They
take up a huge amount of space in a landfill. They do not biodegrade.
Installing a One2flush™ system gives new life to an old toilet
of approximately twenty years.
Give it away
Being Water, the company the Brodericks formed, gives away a device
(adjustable micro valve) to save water use in the toilet. It is easily
installed in five minutes, so Bruce tells me, with no special tools.
Good news!
Another giveaway is a California rainwater harvesting manual which
is available on their website.
“Millions of people around the world do not have access to clean
drinking water,” Bruce states. “We actively support the
Straws for Life Project, putting personal drinking filters into the
hands of people that need them most.”
Rainwater harvesting
Here on the coast we, usually, get plenty of rain. Unfortunately, that
great abundance of rain is not year round; the months of June through
September are usually dry with little, if any rainfall. So, what
to do in the months of no rain?
Create a system to collect and store
the rainwater.
Here’s something to think about. A thousand square-foot roof
will yield 625 gallons of water from one inch of rain. That’s
a goodly amount of water.
There has to be enough storage to use the water when you need it, Bruce
tells me. Without adequate storage it’s still possible to run
out of rainwater. The most practical solution is for landscape irrigation
but rainwater is safe for vegetable gardens, too.
That roof does have to have gutters to collect and direct the water
and some sort of storage space. There are all sorts, from underground
cisterns to using barrels or tanks of any size. Around the world they
come in many different shapes.
Common here on the coast, when we had
tight-grained and abundant redwood, water storage was almost always
in large redwood tanks. No more.
Rainwater flows from the roof into the gutters and from a downspout
into a barrel or tank. There needs to be some sort of filtration to
keep out tree debris, bird droppings and slugs out of the barrel. Naturally,
the filter needs periodic cleaning.
The simplest system is to use gravity, Bruce explains. Hook up a hose
near the bottom and irrigate your yard or garden.
For home use, to supplement wells or municipal water systems, the Brodericks
promote the use of food storage barrels for rainwater. They aren’t
contaminated and once again, it encourages recycling, they last forever
and they’re relatively inexpensive. They come in two colors,
white and blue. The blue has an added bonus, algae doesn’t grow
as much because the color blocks the sunlight. Most food-quality storage
barrels are about six dollars (in Oakland) to thirteen dollars a barrel
(in Ukiah).
Bruce came up with yet another use for those recycled food barrels
for the vegetable garden. Cut them in half lengthwise and turn them
into, at the beginning of the growing season, an individual greenhouse.
The lid can be closed at night to protect the young plants. As the
plants grow, the lid can be left open. Bruce and Eileen use them as
mini “raised beds”. The rainwater collection system is
plumbed in to provide a continuous supply of water.
The Brodericks have given workshops at the Mendocino Coast Botanical
Garden and the Ukiah Garden Club on both gray water use and rainwater
collection systems. In October they installed a rainwater system at
the Noyo Food Forest at Fort Bragg High School for their community
garden. “Their tank, three thousand gallons, is already full,” says
Bruce with pride.
Once we start thinking about water, it’s clear that over all,
we’ve got it good on the North Coast. It’s true we have
droughts; we’ve had three years of low rainfall. There have been
water shortages along the coast in late summer with calls to curtail
water usage. But there are solutions. The Brodericks are two people
in our community who are focused on water and affordable water conservation
with the do-it-yourselfer in mind.
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
—Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack
Sources:
Bruce and Eileen Broderick
Being Water
P.O. Box 717
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 964-7856
www.beingwater.com
(Links to other water-related sites from their site such as The Straws
for Life Project. Also, download a California rainwater harvesting
manual on their website.)
One2flush™: Dual-flush toilet systems available at beingwater.com
and nationwide in, for example, Friedman’s Home Improvement and
Ace Hardware (but not locally) stores, and at Walmart.com, Amazon.com,
eBay.com and many more.
Food source barrels:
Veronica Foods
1991 Dennison Street
Oakland, CA 94606
(510) 535-6833
info@evolivoil.com
Bataeff Salvage
244 Mountain View Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
(707) 584-8401
bataeff@juno.com
bataeffsalvage.com
New storage tanks:
Scott’s Tanks
367 North Main Street
Willits, CA 95490
(707) 459-6677
scottstanks.com
American Tank Company
600 American Way
Windsor, CA 95492
(707) 838-1616 |