Preface

In August 2012 I sat in a radio studio talking about greywater with my former plumbing teacher — and, at the time, Oakland’s senior inspector — Jeff Hutcher, on American Public Media’s The Story. When I met Jeff in 1999, I never would have imagined this moment. I was a student in his residential plumbing class, seeking to learn hands-on skills to build sustainable water systems. At the time, he was horrified to hear about my “Frankenstein” greywater setups and refused to answer questions about my then-illegal plumbing systems in class (he was, after all, a city inspector). Now he and I work together to streamline permits and facilitate legal reuse of greywater.

Greywater Action Los Angeles in 2016. Left to right: Ty Teissere, Laura Allen, Cris Sarabia, Laura Maher, Sergio Scabuzzo

For the past 17 years, I’ve designed and built simple residential water reuse systems: greywater systems, rainwater catchment, and composting toilets. Once my friend and housemate Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and I cut into our home’s plumbing to channel the shower water outside. I couldn’t imagine ever again letting this good irrigation water escape to the sewer. We taught our friends and wrote about the how and the why of it. Our group, the “Greywater Guerrillas,” grew out of these projects. Later, we worked on an anthology, Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground, which placed greywater reuse, rainwater catchment, and composting toilets in the larger political context of water issues around the globe.

Some genuine plumbers joined our group: Christina Bertea, the first woman admitted into Local 159, Plumbers and Steamfitters Union, and Andrea Lara, then an apprentice. With their involvement, we honed our skills and revamped our designs. Andrea, Christina, and I taught dozens of hands-on workshops all over the Bay Area and southern California. As our state entered a multi-year drought, we couldn’t keep up with the demand. Every workshop filled up, along with the wait list. I gave talks at green-living festivals, universities, churches, and even high schools.

Since all our work was illegal, according to state plumbing code at the time, we became involved in changing the code. In 2009 the State of California overhauled its greywater code, making many greywater systems legal. That same year we renamed our group “Greywater Action: For a Sustainable Water Culture,” to represent our goals and strategies to a diverse audience.

We continue to teach hands-on workshops, as well as trainings for professionals who want to offer these services to their clients. In our one-week class we teach people theory and hands-on skills, culminating with the participants installing a real system on the last day of class. Over a hundred people from across the U.S. and Canada have graduated and now champion greywater in their communities. Their systems, businesses, and workshops are the ripple effects of their training.

Our work expanded from the Bay Area to Southern California, where I lived for the past few years, with new members, bilingual (English/Spanish) trainers and materials, and partnerships with forward-thinking water agencies.

Now I live in Oregon and am adapting greywater into a new climate region.

I hope this book helps you tap into your own greywater resources and grow a beautiful, productive landscape.

Brian Munson on left, Christina Bertea on right