RE: What to do with sink water (grey??)

[my4cuties]

 
We ve heard different opinions on how to get rid of sink and shower water (is it called " grey"  water??).   Some say dump it out in toilet in the bath house at a campground, but others say you should do something else.   What is the proper procedure?  And remember, we are TOTALLY new at this, so our questions may sound ridiculous!

[Trlrboy]

 my4cuties
Take it to the park s dump station.
 
 For a variety of posts on this subject use the PUT search feature for " gray water"  and you ll get flooded (sorry, bad pun) with information.

[MtnCamper]

 my4cuties
Depends on where your at. Some places, provide a RV dump, grey water, capture it and pour it down the drain. Aquatainers from Wal-Mart are great. They hold enough for a day, and aren t overbearing on weight. Cheap too. I just put in a pipe nipple and push a short length of hose over it.
 
 I don t pour it in a pit toilet. It has too much soap in the water, will disrupt the degrading process in the toilet, and fill it up too quickly. If everyone dumped there, they would have to pump too often too.
 
 Out here (west) there are no dumping drains. Pop ups are usually allowed to just pour on the ground. Portable toilets (black water) get dumped in the toilet, or brought home and dumped.
 
 So you have to look around, and ask when you check in, if there is a drain somewhere.

[Tim5055]

 my4cuties
Ah, the issue of gray/grey water, how I love it so[]
 
 Gray water is a term which is legally defined state by state as well as a term used by the RV industry to identify the contents of the non sewage waste tank.  Thus you have numerous " definitions"  of what gray water is and depending on who is speaking it can make a big difference.  Confusion arises because the RV industry considers kitchen sink waste " gray water"  while the EPA and most state health departments consider it sewage.  To add to the confusion many communities advocate the practice of reusing/recycling gray water for landscape use.  Do not let this confuse you, when talking about gray water recycling they normally exclude water from a food preparation sink.
 
 The easiest legal definition I found on line was the Arizona definition:
 
  R18-9-701(4) ?Gray water? means wastewater collected separately from a sewage flow that originates from a clothes washer, bathtub, shower, and sink, but does not include wastewater from a kitchen sink, dishwasher, or toilet.?
 
 This is similar to most state laws I have read on the issue and I point out that they exclude water from a kitchen sink. Well, if it is not gray water what is the water that comes out of your sink? It s legally sewage! As it has been explained to me kitchen sink waste contains solids including grease, and food particles that are not normal found in the wastewater from a handwashing sink.
 
 When you think about it, kitchen sink waste is the majority of the water from a pop up.  Many pop up campers moved up from tent camping where washing the dishes in a pan and then dumping the water in the bushes is common and accepted practice.   But, when we deal with the issue of dumping gray water on the ground from pop ups we can t look at the discharge from a single camper, but the combined discharge of all the campers who will use a single campsite over a camping season or longer. Many people feel " soapy water, in moderation, actually helps in soil emulsification" , which  is technically correct, but there is a difference in the amount you may spray on your lawn and the amount 40 or 50 campers will dump on a single campsite over a season if they don t collect and dispose of it properly. Without gray water containment we will have a concentration of soap and other residues dumped in a very small location.
 
 So, what you do with it differs in different areas of the country.  MtnCamper has it right, ask when you check in.
 
 For more information see my[link=http://www.title-3.com/GrayWater.htm]Grey Water Web page[/link]