Show Your Support for Water Recycling in SF

If you are going to be anywhere near San Francisco City Hall this afternoon, please consider going to the fourth floor to voice your support for greywater recycling. There will be a meeting at the Building Inspection Commission today to vote on a SF city amendment which is attempting to make it more complicated for city residents to recycle and conserve our own water.

Time: Wed, Oct 21, pm @ 2pm

Where: SF City Hall, Room 416

Rain barrels made from recycled food grade containers for water conservation.

San Francisco’s Senior Plumbing Inspector, Steve Panelli, (Steven.Panelli@sfgov.org) is proposing a new ordinance that will mandate permits for even the simplest water recycling projects. Requiring more paperwork will discourage water recycling efforts in the city, and will also create a costly bureaucratic nightmare of unnecessary red tape.

For more information, please call Anne Alherne, Building Inspection Commission: 415-558-6126.

Greywater Guerrillas Andrea, Laura and Tara explain the interconnected rain barrel design and required fittings during an informative greywater workshop in San Francisco last January.

This is a copy of a letter that greywater educator and visionary Art Ludwig wrote about this important issue:

Dear Building Inspection Committee, Mr. Panelli,

I understand San Francisco is considering amending the California Plumbing Code to require inspections for basic greywater systems.

The decision to not require permits was carefully weighed in the extensive
stakeholder process for Chapter 16a.

There are many facets to this issue to consider. I will draw your
attention to two of them:

First, requiring permits has, in practice, had almost the exact opposite
of the intended effect.

My predicted outcome of requiring permits in San Francisco:

-Virtually no permits will be issued
-There will be no reduction of the number or improvement in the quality of
existing or future illegal systems
-Professional landscapers, contractors, and plumbers will be shut out of
the greywater business
-Government will still be dismissed as source of guidance by greywater users

Conversely, allowing permit free greywater systems:

-Professional landscapers, contractors, and plumbers will be able to work
on existing and new greywater systems, raising the quality of those
systems dramatically, and raising the average system quality more and more over time
-Public dialog on best practices can take place in public forums
-The number of greywater systems will rise, but slowly and not very much
(most keen greywater users already have an illegal system)
-The compliance rate will be far higher
-Inspectors and health officials will get to see systems, and engage in
dialog with installers and users about best practices
-Gradually, government agencies will be utilized more and more as a source of greywater guidance

Second, the greywater regulation is the poster child for a sea change in
the scope of risks addressed by building codes.

Historically, the focus of building codes has been narrowly trained on
occupant safety. Occupant safety is still a concern. However, at present, and even more so going forward, the risk profile is dominated by emergent risks such as climate disruption, groundwater depletion, deforestation, fisheries collapse, persistent toxins, etc.

The built environment has a profound impact on these “external” risks.
Buildings generate half the CO2 released in the US, for example, and
influence water use and quality profoundly.

The reason greywater is the poster child for this change is that there is
no way to persuade someone looking only at the traditional, narrow sliver
of the risk picture that greywater reuse makes sense.

However, the moment they open their eyes to the whole picture, it makes perfect sense.

Sincerely Yours,

Art Ludwig

greywater researcher and educator

Oasis Design

Ecological Design publishing & consulting

http://www.oasisdesign.net

More information:

What local jurisdictions should think about before requiring permits for basic greywater systems: http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/law/california/currentcode/#amend

UPDATE: Great news! Yesterday the Building Inspector’s Commission voted unanimously to reject the proposed ordinance that would have severely restricted greywater use by requiring permits for all types of systems.