Septic people refer to the wastewater from your home as either graywater or blackwater. Graywater is the fluid that comes from your bathtubs, shower or sinks. Blackwater is the water from the toilets.

When a home requires a septic system most people -- including the engineer, designer, homeowner or builder fail to consider how much stress you are putting on your septic system by piping your graywater into the septic system for treatment.

If you think about it for a moment, what percentage of your wastewater comes from the toilet? Probably 10% -- maybe 20%? That means you are overloading your septic system with 80%-90% more water than is necessary. So, why does it matter?

Let's just keep it simple and talk about your investment in a septic system, and your future bill for your future failed septic system! Let's imagine for a moment that you put out $8,000 for your septic system -- including the cost of your permits and engineering. Now, this might be considerably cheaper than some areas of the country, but let's just use it as an example.

So, you spent $8,000 on your septic system and are overloading it with 80%-90% more water than is necessary. Not to mention that, but the materials that are coming out of your washing machine and shower are causing the microorganisms inside the septic tank to die. Over the years, this overloading of the septic system means more pumping and a possible failure of the leach fields as the biomat begins to build up forming a impermeable layer just below your gravel beds -- now what? Well, now we need a bid on some new leach fields -- there goes another $4,000!

So, now we are at $12,000 for our new septic system with double the leach field capacity, but we forgot to talk about the pumping costs of $400 every 3 years. Let's say the system fails somewhere around the 10-12 year mark, and so we can add another $1,600 to that bill -- not to mention the aggravation of the entire situation!

Now, what if we eliminated all of this hassle by installing a graywater system? If you are unfamiliar with graywater do a little reading and I think you will be intrigued. For those individuals who live in the Southwestern United States a Graywater system is a spectacular idea -- I am often baffled why the counties of the desert Southwest don't make graywater systems mandatory.

By investing in the design and installation of a graywater system at the time of construction you will eliminate all of the hassles I just mentioned -- not to mention you will be saving on your water bill each month by using your Graywater to water the lawn, garden, trees and shrubs -- you can finally have grass in the desert southwest because the water you will be using to water the grass came directly from your home.

Now, I do have to warn you that some people are scared of the idea of graywater. The fear is that some sort of strange pathogen will make it's way to your lawn and make someone sick. While I am sure this is possible, I have never heard of anyone getting sick from graywater. In any event, check with your Health Department or Dept. of Environmental Quality and find out what you have to do to comply with your county code. I think you will be surprised at the cost savings and the benefit to your lawn and garden from using this wonderful resource.