Dahlonega Running Out of Water?
Last week's Dahlonega Nugget had a story that talked about the concern by city and county officials that Dahlonega and Lumpkin County may not have enough water for future developments. The story talked about solutions of finding more water, conservation of this finite resource was not mentioned. In some ways I was reminded of the rhetoric around oil. Drilling for more oil versus reducing consumption.
Water throughout the State of Georgia is treated like it is a infinite resource. The only time of year you read about reducing consumption is the lawn watering months of the year. Many towns go on watering restrictions for lawns. What if we could capture the greywater created from washing our clothes, taking showers and brushing our teeth and reuse the water for our lawns and gardens (can save up to 40% of water usage)? What if we could capture the greywater and reuse it for flushing toilets (may save up to 35% of water usage).
We could since proven technology exists for greywater systems. We can't because Georgia does not allow for greywater usage. Other states allow greywater usage.
Instead we have to have septic tanks in rural areas to mix our blackwater (from toilets) with the greywater and send it out to the drainfields. Could groundwater or well water contamination occur? In cities and towns we send all the greywater mixed again with the nastier blackwater to the sewage treatment plants. Neither method is environmentally friendly. Also we could use all that great greywater and save freshwater.
There are many other things we can do to save water such as low flow shower heads, using front loading washing machines, installing low flow sink aerators on all faucets and more.
It would be great if we could get our state legislature to approve greywater usage once again.
Yes there was a time when Georgians could use greywater legally.
