On Sunday, April 2, as a part of the Benicia Sustainable Backyard program, about ten people gathered at a Benicia house for the final (for now) 2017 laundry-to-landscape hands-on greywater installation workshop. The host for the day was Mayor of Benicia Elizabeth Patterson, a supporter of sustainable use of water. There was a great group of participants from Vallejo and Benicia. A special group of attendees who had applied for the Vallejo Sustainable Backyard demonstration food came to learn both about greywater and about how the workshop was run as an educational experience.
The instructors from Greywater Action, Christina and Jessica, explained current regulation regarding greywater (you do not need a permit in California to install a simple, gravity-fed laundry to landscape system), and different parts of the system: the indoor – laundry three-way valve that will regulate the flow of laundry water to landscape, and the outdoor part – a pipe that will direct greywater to a few mulch basins placed next to the large trees in Elizabeth’s front yard. The group then split in two: half of the participants began installing a three-way valve, while the second half rolled out the water pipe and began digging. The groups changed places after lunch so everyone would get a hands-on experience on every aspect of installation. It took some tweaking and adjusting, but finally the water from the washing machine was flowing evenly to all mulch basins. Now this mature front-yard landscape has a reliable source of water, rain or shine!
Thank you, Mayor Patterson, for volunteering your house for a public workshop!
