Disposing of grey water (1 Viewer)

[Eggs]

If it's a bad habit why do water companies tell us to use washing up water on our gardens when there is a hosepipe ban?

 

[Howard B]

Ok . Seems to be an acceptable practice then. Makes you wonder why sites bother to put in grey waste disposal points.

 

[Eggs]

This is the thing, many 5 van sites aren't on mains sewers, if everyone dumped grey as well as black down the drain they would be forever paying to have ceptic tanks emptied.

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[Brains]

Excellent. Having skim read 235 posts I now understand.

it is OK to dump grey waste anywhere but it isn’t OK to dump grey waste anywhere.
glad we got that sorted.

It depends on who you are.

If for example you are a large water company, It's fine to dump millions of litres of raw sewage into a pristine river and kill all the wildlife, or into the sea and make all the tourists ill.

However woe betide you if you dump a few litres of slightly soapy water into a hedge or a drain !

 

[Eggs]

It depends on who you are.

If for example you are a large water company, It's fine to dump millions of litres of raw sewage into a pristine river and kill all the wildlife, or into the sea and make all the tourists ill.

However woe betide you if you dump a few litres of slightly soapy water into a hedge or a drain !

As much as I agree there is nothing else the water companies can do in storm conditions, treatment takes time, once the storm tanks at the treatment plant are full they have to discharge to save the plant from flooding. More time in the water/sewage industry than I care to remember.

 

[Brains]

As much as I agree there is nothing else the water companies can do in storm conditions, treatment takes time, once the storm tanks at the treatment plant are full they have to discharge to save the plant from flooding. More time in the water/sewage industry than I care to remember.

Fundamental design fault.
Sewer pipes and rain water disposal routes should not be mixed.

If the sewer needs a bit of water to push it all through, then use untreated water from a river to be pumped into the system.
Sewers should not be rain water removal systems.

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[Nanniemate]

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I have 2 of these one bigger than the other when not uses under van they are used for storage, from the cheap shop though

 

[marchie]

Fundamental design fault.
Sewer pipes and rain water disposal routes should not be mixed.

If the sewer needs a bit of water to push it all through, then use untreated water from a river to be pumped into the system.
Sewers should not be rain water removal systems.

I worked on a Job Evaluation Scheme 2001-2003 and remember evaluating the Planning Officer's job. The jobholder said that Planning Consents were [then] trying to mitigate the effect of everyone opting for hard landscaping to park the second car [on what would have been the lawn area in an older property] by stipulating that drainage volumes would be reduced, letting water lie in fields, parks etc, to enable Treatment Plants to cope with the rainwater over a longer period, reducing the risk of sewage being washed in with the torrents of rainwater.

Steve

 

[Eggs]

Fundamental design fault.
Sewer pipes and rain water disposal routes should not be mixed.

If the sewer needs a bit of water to push it all through, then use untreated water from a river to be pumped into the system.
Sewers should not be rain water removal systems.

Is that the design flaw that was ended in the '50's where surface water and foul all went down the same drain?

Any combined sewers built in the last 50-years are illegal connections, not much the water authorities can do if someone has an extension built and the builders divert the SW into the foul system. Another thing, think how many manholes feed into a treatment plant, none of them are sealed covers so SW gets into the foul system via the manhole covers.

I've a feeling you've never worked in water/sewage treatment?

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[Brains]

Is that the design flaw that was ended in the '50's where surface water and foul all went down the same drain?

Any combined sewers built in the last 50-years are illegal connections, not much the water authorities can do if someone has an extension built and the builders divert the SW into the foul system. Another thing, think how many manholes feed into a treatment plant, none of them are sealed covers so SW gets into the foul system via the manhole covers.

I've a feeling you've never worked in water/sewage treatment?

I'll admit my experience stops at septic tank and soakaways installation.

If water can be metered into a property, then it can also be metered out of a property.
If one does not match the other then there is a leak.
(One could do this a street level not individual properties, as a leak would not be a regular occurrence.)

Waterproof manhole covers; Again a design issue, don't fit them in places where surface water runs across them, such as a gutter.
They also don't need to be metal to metal seal, after all the lockers on your motorhome, or the windows in your roof don't leak even in the heaviest rain
In many Asian counties, which have annual monsoon rains, all manhole covers are at least one brick high for this very reason.

I think in this day an age it unacceptable for any water company to ever need to dump untreated water into any environment.
I'd like a price per litre to be levied on each event.

 

[Eggs]

I'll admit my experience stops at septic tank and soakaways installation.

If water can be metered into a property, then it can also be metered out of a property.
If one does not match the other then there is a leak.
(One could do this a street level not individual properties, as a leak would not be a regular occurrence.)

Waterproof manhole covers; Again a design issue, don't fit them in places where surface water runs across them, such as a gutter.
They also don't need to be metal to metal seal, after all the lockers on your motorhome, or the windows in your roof don't leak even in the heaviest rain
In many Asian counties, which have annual monsoon rains, all manhole covers are at least one brick high for this very reason.

I think in this day an age it unacceptable for any water company to ever need to dump untreated water into any environment.
I'd like a price per litre to be levied on each event.

This is when it's unacceptable.

Thames Water fined £20m for sewage spill

The company pumped 1.9 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames in 2013 and 2014.

www.bbc.co.uk

Not when a treatment plant and associated pumping stations go into Storm Emergeny Overflow, by this time untreated sewage is massively diluted by the storm water.

There is a good reason that main sewer covers aren't sealed, when a sewer becomes blocked or overloaded the excess effluent can 'escape' outdoors rather than back up the laterals and internally flood folks houses.

 

[gpat]

Fundamental design fault.
Sewer pipes and rain water disposal routes should not be mixed.

If the sewer needs a bit of water to push it all through, then use untreated water from a river to be pumped into the system.
Sewers should not be rain water removal systems.

No they shouldn't. But who is going to pay the billions of pounds needed to separate them. All the big cities have combined sewers/surface water drains. The victoriana fitted them. Not a 2 minute job to change that.

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[Brains]

No they shouldn't. But who is going to pay the billions of pounds needed to separate them. All the big cities have combined sewers/surface water drains. The victoriana fitted them. Not a 2 minute job to change that.

Agreed.
Bottom line is the water users pay.
If it takes 20-30 years to do the job, then that is not a problem.

But they have had nearly 70 years to do the job,
Certainly it should have been well underway by the 1990's when the companies were privatised.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Agreed.
Bottom line is the water users pay.
If it takes 20-30 years to do the job, then that is not a problem.

But they have had nearly 70 years to do the job,
Certainly it should have been well underway by the 1990's when the companies were privatised.

Replacing all that clapped out Victorian infrastructure would not be conducive to a good share price, who do think will win that contest?
A word from a site operator would be useful, about the efficacy of dumping grey water on the vegetation, under or around the pitches on their site, from the "horses mouth" so to speak.
Discharging fluids onto highway is an offence, as a person I know was told by the police when pulled as he had set his fresh water tank to drain down on the journey home from a motocross meeting that had not required the bikes to be washed of at the end of the day, and he still had 100 gallons on board.
I was on a beach in Cornwall years ago when a German owned motorhome thought nothing of dumping their "Black water" tank contents into the stream that ran through the car park, and on down to the beach where all the kids were playing in the stream making dams and paddling. A mob of angry parents had him making a hasty shame face retreat out of the car park.
Mike

 

[TheBig1]

I remember my dad telling me the story of demolishing a building in Chichester in the 50s. It was a bus garage and had a very large pit built of reinforced concrete. An accident with a cutting torch ignited sewer gasses, and manholes for half a mile along the main road were dislodged with a bang. The Police, fire service and bomb disposal all attended. They called in the water board, who sent out their expert, an old guy that had worked those sewers for decades. Apparently a new sewer was put in ages before and the old victorian brick one just left in the ground

That is an important reason for non sealed chambers

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[Shrimp]

A bucket!

 

[Captain Birdseye]

Depends what sort of site you are on. We are fulltimers and have been on a small CS site for nearly 15 weeks!

Hedges by the side of our pitch get our grey water. Some site owners would be upset by this, others encourage it.

Paul

When there is a water shortage the water companies encourage using grey water on your garden.

 

[glenn2926]

I love the old water shortage pleas by water companies. There is no more or less water water on this planet than there has ever been.
The water companies just aren’t very good at managing their supply networks. You know, doing their job. The one job we pay them to do.

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[PeterE1947]

I use the toilet cassette. Empty black waste first , go back to van fill with grey and repeat .....

Also rinses it a bit.

Daniel

My wife thought this up to. Brilliant idea!!

 

[Ian Bosman]

If it's a bad habit why do water companies tell us to use washing up water on our gardens when there is a hosepipe ban?

Telling us how to keep our garden plants alive is one thing but in most places where we can pitch they have rules from the very simple to quite lengthy. I would argue that apart from reading the written rules a few questions are in order as you arrive/check-in. 1. Where do I pitch? 2. Where are the fresh drinking water point(s). 3. Where do I empty my toilet cassette? 4. Where do I dispose of my grey water? 5. Where is the EHU?. This thread has all been about no.4.
Lastly, comments about what constitutes grey water. My practice is and always has tended to be to do the washing up in the outfit thus including waste food left behind on the plates/dishes. Thus I do not ever dispose of grey water in hedgerows unless specifically allowed, I have yet to see a site allowing it on the pitch. Those whose grey water is only soapy water from your personal hygiene, never including food might argue for on the pitch but the site rules overrule whatever anyone thinks or believes. All of this IMHO

 

[Ian Bosman]

My wife thought this up to. Brilliant idea!!

With a 150 litre grey water tank it would mean a lot of trips for me!

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[Ian Bosman]

I'll admit my experience stops at septic tank and soakaways installation.

If water can be metered into a property, then it can also be metered out of a property.
If one does not match the other then there is a leak.
(One could do this a street level not individual properties, as a leak would not be a regular occurrence.)

Waterproof manhole covers; Again a design issue, don't fit them in places where surface water runs across them, such as a gutter.
They also don't need to be metal to metal seal, after all the lockers on your motorhome, or the windows in your roof don't leak even in the heaviest rain
In many Asian counties, which have annual monsoon rains, all manhole covers are at least one brick high for this very reason.

I think in this day an age it unacceptable for any water company to ever need to dump untreated water into any environment.
I'd like a price per litre to be levied on each event.

The point about metering has a flaw. How do you measure metered water drunk on site but output (urinated) elsewhere? My wife, for example, drinks a gallon of fresh water every day. I know I drink a bit less but I hope you get the point.

 

[SpikeH]

Hi, we’ve booked a campsite in a couple of weeks but learnt they don’t have a drive over drain to dispose of grey water.
Just the usual disposal stations that we used to use when we caravanned.
Any suggestions on the best solution. Didn’t want to have to carry a wastemaster.

Hi. Not sure why you worry about carrying a waste master or similar - they are light enough no to worry about when travelling. (we use a 25 ltr container from Lidl - has large caps on side and top) we just park up and place under the waste tap and leave it open. Carry the container to empty as required. Bonus - no grey water stored in the waste tank so never any smells back up the sinks!

 

[gwyntaxi]

Hi, we’ve booked a campsite in a couple of weeks but learnt they don’t have a drive over drain to dispose of grey water.
Just the usual disposal stations that we used to use when we caravanned.
Any suggestions on the best solution. Didn’t want to have to carry a wastemaster.

Hi, we’ve booked a campsite in a couple of weeks but learnt they don’t have a drive over drain to dispose of grey water.
Just the usual disposal stations that we used to use when we caravanned.
Any suggestions on the best solution. Didn’t want to have to carry a wastemaster.

Hi, we’ve booked a campsite in a couple of weeks but learnt they don’t have a drive over drain to dispose of grey water.
Just the usual disposal stations that we used to use when we caravanned.
Any suggestions on the best solution. Didn’t want to have to carry a wastemaster.

I Have nothing at all against caravanners or ex-c/vans, but you can always spot them straight away, out comes the wastemaster and aquaroll, when will they realise the caravanning And Motorhomes are two very different ball games, all you need is a bucket, collapsible if you prefer and drain the waste into it every evening and empty it at the disposal point, simples, oh and those huge cumbersome wastemasters they all seem to be fixed to rear ladders or bike racks cos there’s no room inside for them, ditch em, and adopt sensible Motorhome methods.

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[peterc10]

My wife thought this up to. Brilliant idea!!

Better still I take a bucket of grey waste when I am wheeling the cassette to the black waste point. After emptying the cassette I pour the grey waste into the cassette shake it all about and then empty. Saves another trip to the waste point.

 

[peterc10]

Telling us how to keep our garden plants alive is one thing but in most places where we can pitch they have rules from the very simple to quite lengthy. I would argue that apart from reading the written rules a few questions are in order as you arrive/check-in. 1. Where do I pitch? 2. Where are the fresh drinking water point(s). 3. Where do I empty my toilet cassette? 4. Where do I dispose of my grey water? 5. Where is the EHU?. This thread has all been about no.4.
Lastly, comments about what constitutes grey water. My practice is and always has tended to be to do the washing up in the outfit thus including waste food left behind on the plates/dishes. Thus I do not ever dispose of grey water in hedgerows unless specifically allowed, I have yet to see a site allowing it on the pitch. Those whose grey water is only soapy water from your personal hygiene, never including food might argue for on the pitch but the site rules overrule whatever anyone thinks or believes. All of this IMHO

We also always wash up in the motorhome. But before we do that we scrape and wipe all of the food remnants and grease into the waste bin. That minimises the smells that build up in the grey waste tank, which are caused by the food remnants rotting down.

 

[Brains]

Hi. Not sure why you worry about carrying a waste master or similar - they are light enough no to worry about when travelling. (we use a 25 ltr container from Lidl - has large caps on side and top) we just park up and place under the waste tap and leave it open. Carry the container to empty as required. Bonus - no grey water stored in the waste tank so never any smells back up the sinks!

Metering outflow could be done on an area basis.
If the water exiting an area exceeds the water going into an area, then it would imply a leak.
ie: Rain water entering the system, which is what is causing the problem of sewage works dumping waster water into rivers/sea when it rains

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[pandas]

if you have stood near the grey waste outlet whilst emptying after a weeks usage it does whiff.

 

[GirlyVanGirly]

Empty your grey waste into a bucket walk to the disposal stations and empty bucket, and repeat until your grey waste tank is empty.

We have two black folding 20 litre buckets to do that, storage is easier than hose too

 

[Folkranger]

We never stay on one site longer than about three days so never a problem. I notice however(not having read all these posts) that everyone is very good and empties where you should. My observations in the real world is that many people either run a constant drip, empty overnight, use the nearest hedge or wait till it rains. Of course no-one here would do that.

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