ernestfortier wrote: Grey water MIGHT harm the environment if dumped on the ground. It MIGHT even get into the underground water supply. But if that was true, where does the water go if you have a septic system at your house? HHHMMMMM. I guess the water from a septic system goes directly into the ground. Sometimes environmentalist go overboard with what you can do and can't do. If needed I do dump some of my grey water on the ground, but not in campsites.
that grass was always greener in the summer time....
The trees love it ! As for food particals, you ever see whats on the ground after 4 kids eat smores ? Its a fact that in my camp the bugs arent going after my gray water crumbs !
This is where all our gray water goes, it's drained as we generate it. When we're done we cover it up.
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I can't believe anyone would empty their grey water onto the campsite!!!
Do you dump your house grey water directly onto the lawn at your home? Why would you do it at a campsite?
If the campground has specific policies on how to dump the grey water, and those are followed, that is fine. Most say NO DUMPING OF GREY WATER!!
On an individual basis, maybe one camper a year doing this, certainly would have minimal impact. But you are not the only one using these sites, if everyone did this it would have undesired affects. So what makes you so special that you can do it and not everyone else. And I don't care if you bring a hose to get it 50 feet from the parking pad.
If you have to do this, you are not conserving water very well!! You obviously use more then 40 gallons (or how ever many gallons your grey water holds). If you don't, why don't you just dump it with the black water when you dump? And since you do this, you aren't as concerened about how much you use and dump to the campsite ground.
Dumping it at home directly to the ground or similar places, I guess I'm not that apposed to, although I don't practice doing this. I do confess to doing it once But not a full tank of grey, probably a couple gallons.
"Do you dump your house grey water directly onto the lawn at your home? Why would you do it at a campsite?"
Many hundreds of people in the SW do exactly that: dump house grey water onto the lawn. Lots of houses in the SW are plumbed to accomodate using grey water. Personally, I would not at a campsite as campsites are usually high use areas and I don't want to leave a muddy mess for the next guy. Fortunately, we're not in campgrounds all that much.
For those that are horrified by the thought of grey water on the ground, I grew up on the WA coast north of Seattle where there are lots of dairy farms. The farmers store the cow "exhaust" and liquify it. Then it is stored in tanks where it can get even more icky. If you come across what looks like a huge sprinkler out in a field, I wouldn't recommend running through it.
There are lots worse things dumped on the ground than my shower water. When they put diapers on all the cattle, horses and wild animals, then I'll stop dumping grey water. Often, this discussion is more about the attitude that anything humans do is bad and anything animals do is good.
Most truck campers didn't have grey tanks for years, so all of their grey water went right onto the ground.
Unless you're rebuilding a carbeurator in your kitchen sink, I don't see what the problem is. A little bit of dish soap isn't going to do anything, and we might get the campsites a little greener.
I don't do it most of the time, but if I filled my grey tank earlier, I'd definitely drain off a bit on the grass vs. hooking up and going to the dump station. As I see it, good for the ground...free water!
KD
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Saying if you use 40 gallons of water, you are not conserving very well does not take into account length of stay. 40 gallons over a weekend is one thing. 40 gallons over a week is quite another. When boondocking, it is often miles to a dump station so a blue tote doesn't do it. As rolnrolnroln said, many homes in the southwest are plumbed to use grey water for irrigation. As Erma Bombeck used to say, the grass is always greener over the septic tank.
When we tent camped we always dumped our dish washing water on the ground. While we not not dump grey water from the TT at a campsite I have no issue doing it at home at all. But usually there is nothing in the grey tank as we always make sure we use the dump station for both tanks before leaving the CG.
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