Drought. What to do? You can cut back on your water use, of course, but there are two sources most people don’t try to use – rainwater and greywater.
John Russell, President of WaterSprout, told us about both at a GreenTown Los Altos sponsored talk organized by GreenTown Water Chair, Linda Ziff, held at the Los Altos Library Feb. 29.
John Russell from WaterSprout.
Rainwater can be collected in barrels, a fun and low cost approach that will help you during dry spells in the winter, but they go empty in the summer just when you need it the most.
A better bet is greywater capture. You have water from your washing machine all year, so capture it to be reused elsewhere, such as for irrigation. It can be a simple DIY system without a pump, or something much more elaborate. Russell can help with that. He cautioned that greywater should not be used with root vegetables or leafy greens like lettuce, but there are plenty of other places that make sense.
Visit greywateraction.org for more information.
There is one more very good reason to capture rainwater and greywater: energy savings. Pumping, cleaning and treating water is the biggest single use of electricity in the state.
Linda Ziff, Water Chair at GreenTown Los Altos.
Using less water helps fight climate change in more ways than one!
Gary Hedden | Energy Chair
