Emptying Grey Water...... (1 Viewer)

Feb 18, 2017
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Why the hell worry about a bit of soapy water when water companies dump untreated sewage into rivers and the sea legally
... and until such time as they are fined several pence per litre for raw sewage and a slightly lower rathe per litre of semi-treated sewage, they will continue to dump.

At present it is cheaper for them to dump that to treat.
It should never have been permitted in the first place, but now everyone is aware,
this needs to be changed, and changed very fast, as in by the end of 2022.

Will that send up the water bills? Yes
Will that make their shares worth a lot less ? Yes
Will the shareholders complain privately to their MP's ? Yes
Will certain MP's with a brown envelope in their pocket complain on the floor of the house ? Yes
Who's fault is it ? The regulators for not insisting on a clean up as the companies were privatised
Will we end up with clean water? Yes. On condition the cost of treating per litre, (not per tonne) substantially exceeds the cost of dumping.
 
Jan 9, 2017
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Why the hell worry about a bit of soapy water when water companies dump untreated sewage into rivers and the sea legally
I totally agree. Some people think the death sentence should be appled to irresponsible grey water discharge. Drive a smoky diesel motorhome poluting the environment- good, drop some soapy water bad (i assume these people have found ways of cleaning their vehicles without allowing any dirty soapy water touching the ground :unsure: )

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Feb 16, 2019
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If we had a water shortage, would you use your grey water if you could collect it to water your garden?
 
Sep 10, 2020
339
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99% certain you are wrong there

Surface water drains are very rarely connected to foul sewers
Well I (and all my neighbours) am the 1% where surface water, rainwater, sinks and toilet water all goes down the same drain. How do I know? If I lift the drain cover in my yard I can watch it all pass down the gully. I have had my drains lined due to root ingress from the trees in the pavement and seen the pipework enter the gully in the road beside my house. This of course is useful because i can also remove the drain cover to empty my cassette when i return form a moho trip. I then flush the loo in the house and watch this water flow to check that the casette contents have been washed down.

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Tombola

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Nov 21, 2020
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Ive dropped my grey plenty times at grids at the side of the road.
I always make sure I do it on a grid where my van leans properly to get it all out .
A bit of dishwater and shower water gong down a roadside kerb grid wont kill anyone.

Me thinks a few people here are telling porkies ;)
 
Feb 24, 2013
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Actually combined drains are quite common in town and city areas, I come across them all the time. Is the drain by your kitchen a gulley which has the sink wastes running to it? If so it should be running into the sewer as you can’t run sink wastes to surface water systems.

It wasn’t my drain being discussed, but mine does connect to the sewer 👍

Well I (and all my neighbours) am the 1% where surface water, rainwater, sinks and toilet water all goes down the same drain. How do I know? If I lift the drain cover in my yard I can watch it all pass down the gully. I have had my drains lined due to root ingress from the trees in the pavement and seen the pipework enter the gully in the road beside my house. This of course is useful because i can also remove the drain cover to empty my cassette when i return form a moho trip. I then flush the loo in the house and watch this water flow to check that the casette contents have been washed down.

I fully agree with your findings, my point related to the road gulley mentioned in your post, that in the majority of cases will not be connected to the foul sewer , but diverted to nearest water course

There will always be exceptions of course
 

tonyandcarol

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Oct 1, 2016
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Ive dropped my grey plenty times at grids at the side of the road.
I always make sure I do it on a grid where my van leans properly to get it all out .
A bit of dishwater and shower water gong down a roadside kerb grid wont kill anyone.

Me thinks a few people here are telling porkies ;)
I have done the same thing ad you many times. And it won't affect anything. It seems a trivial thing really compared to pulling into laybys that are frequented by truckers and bottles of piss and human shit all over.
 
May 29, 2017
183
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virgin
Ive dropped my grey plenty times at grids at the side of the road.
I always make sure I do it on a grid where my van leans properly to get it all out .
A bit of dishwater and shower water gong down a roadside kerb grid wont kill anyone.

Me thinks a few people here are telling porkies ;)
Maybe they were former employees at No 10 !
 
Nov 6, 2016
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Maybe you don't worry about it but I drive through that area several times a week and I don't want the stink of their body washings or washing up thanks :eek: :whistle:
But you are happy with the stink of stale urine, which in my experience is ever present in service areas, especially where trucks park up!!!

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Pirahna

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Aug 20, 2020
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Can someone explain why grey water should be put down a drain? I've absolutely no problem at all washing my van/car/whatever in the road and letting the grey water go wherever it wants.
 

Tombola

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Nov 21, 2020
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Can someone explain why grey water should be put down a drain? I've absolutely no problem at all washing my van/car/whatever in the road and letting the grey water go wherever it wants.
grease mainly

and laughable mainly even more
 
Aug 18, 2014
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(i assume these people have found ways of cleaning their vehicles without allowing any dirty soapy water touching the ground :unsure: )

Can someone explain why grey water should be put down a drain? I've absolutely no problem at all washing my van/car/whatever in the road and letting the grey water go wherever it wants.
Theoretically it is illegal under environmental regulations just that they were too frightened to actually enforce it. & Basically why all fuel stations have to have there own drainage around the pump area & if they have washing facilities it all has to be recycled with no external outflow.

Always been totally illegal here in spain to wash a vehicle anywhere except at a designated vehicle washing facility. Even illegal on your own property.

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Feb 14, 2021
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19 month year 18000 miles UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy. Campsites and off Grid.
...and then there's those filthy canal boats where the grey water goes directly into the canal. :rolleyes: The fish. ducks. geese, swans. herons coots. etc don't seem to mind.

What you should really do is open it and drive away quickly so it is dispersed nicely along the road.;)
 

funflair

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I have done the same thing ad you many times. And it won't affect anything. It seems a trivial thing really compared to pulling into laybys that are frequented by truckers and bottles of piss and human shit all over.
It depends where it goes after the gulley really, there is a surface water culvert runs under the road and then a few housing up from us the culvert then turns into an open watercourse through our garden so possibly it does affect somebody/something, it is even worse though when the foul finds it's way into the surface water gulley due to antiquated pipes(n)
 

Eggs

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Theoretically it is illegal under environmental regulations just that they were too frightened to actually enforce it. & Basically why all fuel stations have to have there own drainage around the pump area & if they have washing facilities it all has to be recycled with no external outflow.

Always been totally illegal here in spain to wash a vehicle anywhere except at a designated vehicle washing facility. Even illegal on your own property.
Almost correct, fuel stations have interceptors to catch spillage that get emptied by vac tankers on a regular basis. They still discharge to public sewer.
 

tonyandcarol

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It depends where it goes after the gulley really, there is a surface water culvert runs under the road and then a few housing up from us the culvert then turns into an open watercourse through our garden so possibly it does affect somebody/something, it is even worse though when the foul finds it's way into the surface water gulley due to antiquated pipes(n)
I was not trying to play down that emptying grey waste anywhere is OK but in certain circumstances it would be OK. Its not so much antiquated pipes that allow sewerage into surface water systems but illegal sewer connections that have caused this there are hundreds all over Lincs so there must be thousands all over the country.
 
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David and Sally
Apr 9, 2018
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But you are happy with the stink of stale urine, which in my experience is ever present in service areas, especially where trucks park up!!!
As I have pointed out. This is a separate caravan area, no trucks. Pity the poor vanners that pull in for lunch and have to endure the stink from the grey waste dumped there.
 

funflair

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I was not trying to play down that emptying grey waste anywhere is OK but in certain circumstances it would be OK. Its not so much antiquated pipes that allow sewerage into surface water systems but illegal sewer connections that have caused this there are hundreds all over Lincs so there must be thousands all over the country.
Yes I certainly get the illegal connection issue, our particular issue has been investigated by the water authority and their conclusion was something like a foul interceptor block/overflows and can then find it's way into the adjacent surface water culvert and then our garden, when we get heavy rain it runs black as all the muck washes off the roads, thes rest of the time it's quite a pleasant little feature;)
 

Tombola

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If we had a water shortage, would you use your grey water if you could collect it to water your garden?
Yep !
and as all water comanies say, use your grey to do this anyway to save water

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Tombola

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Yes I certainly get the illegal connection issue, our particular issue has been investigated by the water authority and their conclusion was something like a foul interceptor block/overflows and can then find it's way into the adjacent surface water culvert and then our garden, when we get heavy rain it runs black as all the muck washes off the roads, thes rest of the time it's quite a pleasant little feature;)
same with me, if we have real downpours for days, or blockage down the road we get our drains backing up for about 10 houses down the street,where then it cuts off into the park underground and goes off and as we are the final one in the chain it comes out of our grids etc. Toilet paper remnats and the lot.
our roof gulleys & grey go to the same pipes.
 
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suavecarve

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Ive dropped my grey plenty times at grids at the side of the road.
I always make sure I do it on a grid where my van leans properly to get it all out .
A bit of dishwater and shower water gong down a roadside kerb grid wont kill anyone.

Me thinks a few people here are telling porkies ;)
There is a skill involved in selecting the right layby on the right side of the road for the waste to go directly down the drain and leave no evidence of dumping less water than is used to wash the van.

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Puddleduck

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Jan 15, 2014
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We built our house so I am very familiar with which drains go where! And it's all private, no public sewer or road drains here.

The black and grey waste go into a septic tank (thinking of replacing that with a mini-treatment works) and the rainwater from the roof goes into a soakaway (via an underground tank after the rainwater barrels that we use for the poultry and for the garden). Remember it's Scotland and we get a fair bit of rain lol. We do have a pump system for taking water from the tank back to the barrels. No mains water used for the garden is our rule.

Water from the road is supposed to go into a different soakaway which is the responsibility of the council. This has been blocked for years and the water overflows and runs down the road, washing away the tarmac. We asked if we could have it dug out and sorted at our own expense ..... "No".
 
Feb 19, 2018
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nd then there's those filthy canal boats where the grey water goes directly into the canal. :rolleyes: The fish. ducks. geese, swans. herons coots. etc don't seem to mind.

Except now they all have Avian Flu and are the main cause of the spread!
Not the main cause of it I'm sure, but it cannot help especially when there are pump out stations on most canals.
 
Feb 2, 2019
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In the great scheme of things the reality must surely be that a bit of grey on the road which then seeps down the drains won't do much harm when there are an ever increasing number of hand car washes spewing water into the drainage system?

There's no comparison between washing up and showering waste compared to TFR, rinse additives and all potentially toxic dirt that comes off a vehicle when washed.

I get it that it's bad form If someone rocked up outside your house and dropped the grey waste, but I think in general it's more of a curtain twitching faux pas that gives some an excuse to have a moan.

Imagine the stink of the camping fields at any warners shows once everyone has left after dropping their grey? I've not noticed?

If you are careful and selective where you drop it I don't personally see it as too much of an issue. Does that make me an irresponsible yahoo?

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