No Greywater on Playa?
Greywater treatment
We have used a sand filter for the last two years to filter dish and cooking water before putting it into our evap pond. The pond stays much cleaner by the end of the week and doesn't end up being a smelly mess.
We use a small trash can with a 1 1/2 inch outlet hole at the bottom and a length of plastic hose that leads into the evap pond. The trash can is set up on a concrete block so it can drain. In the bottom of the can is about three inches of gravel. on top of that is a piece of window screen. Above that is sand. The sand goes up to within about 4 inches from the top of the can. Another section of window screen in a frame sits on top of the can. It catches most of the chunks which we throw into our compost evaporator. It's pretty heavy. It takes two strong people to lift it.
One of the harder things to deal with on the playa is a half-gallon of milk or orange juice gone bad, or left over soup that no one wants. It's too wet to put in the compost dryer unless the quantities are very small. If you put it directly in the evap pond, you end up with a stinky mess. The sand filter handles it just fine.
Make sure you have a lid for the filter can. It can get smelly toward the end of the week. Just leave the lid on when it's not being used. Take it home when you are done and dispose of the contents appropriately.
The trick is to have a sand filter larger enough to handle the camp size. I don't have any formulas for this. The first time we tried it we used a 6 gallon container and it wasn't big enough. I think our filter can last year was 15 gallons and it was fine.
We used an 8-foot x 12 foot evap pond that handled our camp of 27 people plus a few from nearby camps who 'borrowed' our outdoor shower (which sits in the evap pond). We, like the other person who posted, noticed someone who was dumping their greywater into our pond which we stopped right away. Anyway, at the end of the week, it was all evaporated. We rolled up the plastic liner, put it in a trash bag and took it home along with our other trash.
On another, but maybe related topic - We were camped near Esplanade last year and some people who were too lazy to walk to the porta-potties were caught hiding behind our motorhomes to pee on the playa. I don't know what can be done about this other than a fence around the whole camp. It can give a camp a bad name for clean-up if there are dozens of pee-spots all over. We are grateful that no one took a shit.
Mr. God
Amphibia - Coming to Burning Man in 2007
It's Easy to Be Green!
http://www.planetamphibia.com
We use a small trash can with a 1 1/2 inch outlet hole at the bottom and a length of plastic hose that leads into the evap pond. The trash can is set up on a concrete block so it can drain. In the bottom of the can is about three inches of gravel. on top of that is a piece of window screen. Above that is sand. The sand goes up to within about 4 inches from the top of the can. Another section of window screen in a frame sits on top of the can. It catches most of the chunks which we throw into our compost evaporator. It's pretty heavy. It takes two strong people to lift it.
One of the harder things to deal with on the playa is a half-gallon of milk or orange juice gone bad, or left over soup that no one wants. It's too wet to put in the compost dryer unless the quantities are very small. If you put it directly in the evap pond, you end up with a stinky mess. The sand filter handles it just fine.
Make sure you have a lid for the filter can. It can get smelly toward the end of the week. Just leave the lid on when it's not being used. Take it home when you are done and dispose of the contents appropriately.
The trick is to have a sand filter larger enough to handle the camp size. I don't have any formulas for this. The first time we tried it we used a 6 gallon container and it wasn't big enough. I think our filter can last year was 15 gallons and it was fine.
We used an 8-foot x 12 foot evap pond that handled our camp of 27 people plus a few from nearby camps who 'borrowed' our outdoor shower (which sits in the evap pond). We, like the other person who posted, noticed someone who was dumping their greywater into our pond which we stopped right away. Anyway, at the end of the week, it was all evaporated. We rolled up the plastic liner, put it in a trash bag and took it home along with our other trash.
On another, but maybe related topic - We were camped near Esplanade last year and some people who were too lazy to walk to the porta-potties were caught hiding behind our motorhomes to pee on the playa. I don't know what can be done about this other than a fence around the whole camp. It can give a camp a bad name for clean-up if there are dozens of pee-spots all over. We are grateful that no one took a shit.
Mr. God
Amphibia - Coming to Burning Man in 2007
It's Easy to Be Green!
http://www.planetamphibia.com
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Teo del Fuego
- Posts: 1391
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:31 am
- Burning Since: 2005
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Teo del Fuego
- Posts: 1391
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:31 am
- Burning Since: 2005
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unjonharley
- Posts: 10434
- Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 11:05 am
- Burning Since: 2001
- Camp Name: Elliot's naked bycycel repair
- Location: Salem Or.
