Greywater Guerrillas

The New York Times has a good article on the Greywater Guerrillas and their new book Dam Nation.

From the story:

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Woelfle-Erskine stood in the backyard of the Haut House and explained how one of the half-dozen gray water systems there works. A pipe running from the house deposits shower and sink water into an elevated bathtub in the yard that is filled with gravel and reeds, and the roots of plants begin filtering and absorbing contaminants. The water then flows into a second, lower, tub, also containing a reedbed, before flowing into a still-lower tub of floating water hyacinths and small fish.

“We’ve had the water tested,” Mr. Woelfle-Erskine said, “and it’s clean — there’s just a little phosphorous left, which the plants in the garden actually like.” Through trial and error, Mr. Woelfle-Erskine and Ms. Allen have found what they say is the best way to spread wastewater into the gravel beds (through a screened milk crate) and which plants best clean the water while not growing so vigorously as to block pipes (cattails).