While biking around some new developments in the FL gulf coast area today, I noticed a bunch of piping and fittings laid through the ground and terminating near where each lot goes, all colored purple. There were some larger purple pipes nearby, looking like the typical Florida deal where water pipes rise from the ground, pass through a couple of check valves, and go back in -- no frost worries. Those are usually blue, but these were purple. I figured it was another color code, but immediately discarded the idea of natural gas since a lot of the piping was PVC. I also spotted a couple of purple cover plates labeled "REUSE". . Googled for "purple" and "reuse" and "water" and "construction" later on, and found that yes, purple is the official color for reclaimed greywater that can be recovered, minimally treated, and used again for non-potable applications such as irrigation, toilets, etc. It requires building two parallel drainage and feed systems in each house and neighborhood, but the costs are evidently minimal and it saves a heckuvalotta water. . This is awesome. Now, all they need to do is start recovering *heat* from laundry and sink and shower drains before the stuff goes to treatment... . _H*
We live in the area of a treatment plant. Purple water is a coveted resource by the homeowners associations and developments nearby. County provides purple water for free for irrigation purposes. All it takes is a minimal investment to purchase the tapping hardware, the county provides the labor. There is an educational process that goes on to teach the users of the property (eg. common grounds in a subdivision) that the purple spigots and anything purple is reuse water. Once you go purple (e.g., tap your irrigation system into the purple system), you are not allowed to return that system back into potable water, for fears of backwash contamination.
Wow, this is cool. Wasting clean water in toilets is a waste! I would pay to get a system like this for my toilet (and lawn if the water is clean enough). The problem would be to tell the dog to stop drinking that stuff!
Does this mean that I have to rethink my "catastrophe plan?" It used to be that in the event of an emergency you could count on the few gallons of water in the back of the toilet and the hot water heater for hydration. I'm only partly joking here.
