Graywater Rules Make Some Unhappy

Two new city laws took effect in Tucson last month, one to require gray-water hookups in new homes and the other to require businesses to use rainfall to water 50 percent of their outdoor landscaping.

City officials say they're open to talking with builders about how to fix bugs in new gray-water systems.

The city law is one of two taking effect. The other is a rain-harvesting requirement for businesses with outdoor landscaping.

The system's first leg - a two-inch "stub-out" extending from indoor plumbing fixtures - is mandatory. The law's backers hope it will encourage homeowners to add outdoor gray-water plumbing at their expense. The city has been holding forums to educate homeowners how to install and use gray-water systems.

Here's what the laws will require:

Gray water ordinance:

• Gray-water use allowed includes wastewater from bathtubs, washing machines, showers and bathroom sinks.
  
• Wastewater from kitchen sinks and toilets is considered "black water." It must be discharged to the sewer system instead of onto landscaping.
  
• New homes and duplexes must be built with stub-outs. That's piping extending about 2 inches from a home's exterior wall, to carry gray water from indoor plumbing outdoors to landscaping.
  
• All new single-family homes must include building drains for showers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks that are kept separate from other plumbing-fixture drains that can allow for future installation of outdoor pipes to distribute the gray water.
  
• Homeowners are responsible for installing outdoor gray-water distribution systems.

Rainwater-harvesting ordinance and development standards:

• At the time developers of new commercial, office or apartment projects submit development plans to the city, they must submit a plan showing the physical layout of their sites, containing technical details of how they will supply at least 50 percent of their landscape's water from rainfall.
  
• They must also submit a water budget, outlining how much water their projects' landscaping will need and how they expect to get half of that from rainfall.
  
• The 50 recent requirement kicks in three years after they get their final certificate of occupancy.
  
• The projects are exempt from the 50 percent rules in years when annual rainfall is less than 9 inches, which has happened five times in the last 10 years.
  
• Developers can use active harvesting devices such as cisterns or other tanks. Or, they can use passive methods, such as digging depressions in the ground to catch rainfall, or allowing water to flow by gravity to plants.
  
• Developers using passive harvesting must design projects so rainwater seeps into the soil within 24 hours.
  
• Sites must be designed to minimize ponding in areas that could create nuisances for pedestrians. Ponding isn't allowed on public sidewalks or pedestrian-circulation paths.
  
• Storage tanks may be made of metal, plastic, masonry, reinforced concrete or fiberglass.