Water, Water… Not Exactly Everywhere

Today we’re posting an episode that we recorded back in mid-May, but that doesn’t mean we’ve moved on from talking about social justice. Let’s all keep marching, and donating, and pressuring our elected officials.

Onto today’s topic… water!

We talk about what Vince has learned from his years working in greywater and how we want to apply those lessons to our property. Water is life!

Today we’re posting an episode that we recorded back in mid-May, but that doesn’t mean we’ve moved on from talking about social justice. It’ll be tempting for white allies to refocus on coronavirus and the environment and everything we have on our plates in the coming months, but it’s vital to remember that racism and systemic injustice won’t go away just because we stop talking about it. So let’s keep marching, and donating, and pressuring our elected officials.

Onto today’s topic… water!

Vince has worked in greywater basically the entire time we’ve lived in California. He reached out to his current boss 6 years ago after watching a video on YouTube, and he’s still working for the same Los Angeles greywater company to this day. And even throughout coronavirus, business has been thriving… people are spending more time at home and in their gardens, which apparently means that even more Angelenos are seeing the value of greywater. Which is good, because the way that LA gets its water is unsustainable AF.

His job is a combination of plumbing and landscaping. They don’t touch “black water” (sewage), but there’s no reason to send all the water from your laundry, bathtub, and dishes into the sewer. Give it to your plants instead! Keep it local! He also installs rainwater tanks… not only does a major rain event overwhelm the city sewer system, but keeping all that water local is also a step towards refilling our depleted water table. The future is about mitigating extreme weather events and keeping everything local.

We also talk about division of labor and taking ownership of projects. I appreciated his help designing my SunShade, but it also made me feel a little bit like I’m not competent enough to take full ownership of a project from start to finish. But, as Vince points out, I hadn’t really worked hands-on with PVC before so I needed to be co-pilot on one mission before flying solo. Hopefully now I can be more self-sufficient on other PVC projects in the future.

Finally, the debate over the pronunciation of “potable” continues. (I’M right. It’s “pote-able.” One day Vince will see. One day…)

WHAT WE BUILT:

Amy’s SunShade: a shaded box built from 1/2” and 3/4” PVC pipes, a bed sheet, and lace curtains.

Vince also had a neighbor growing up who built hoop greenhouses out of PVC. Our enthusiasm for PVC continues.

Vince scored a discarded water heater off the curb here in LA, which he plans to use for heated non-potable water storage. Eventually he plans to use black tubing, a circulating pump and a temperature mixing valve to create our own heated water system. He even wants to create heated floors. We will update you on our progress!

WHAT WE LEARNED:

I learned a lot about water, from mysterious shit-drying fields in the desert to why urban wells aren’t a solution to our water shortage.

Vince estimates that we may ultimately want up to 1000 gallons a day of non-potable water, which is about an acre-foot of water per year. That’s one tenth of our property, one foot deep! So much water! But if we can catch all of the water that falls during the rainy season, that should actually be doable. We just have a lot of work to do on reservoirs, holding tanks, pipe runs, and more.