Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:45:08 -0600
Reply-To: Tom Buese <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Buese <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Anybody use one of these?
In-Reply-To: <46A22F09.3030606@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
At Burning Man, I made a solar evaporative gray water collector for
my shower. Shower enclosure w/o roof covering, suitably sized black
plastic shower pan to catch shower water, & let the water evaporate.
W/ the black plastic, mucho sun, it evaporates fairly quickly. My
shower stall was soon beseiged w/ requests for use, & many volks used
it daily, so I opened the sides from 10-noon daily to allow faster
evaporation. I made a 3' x 3' wood base to stand in the water so you
wouldn't be, but you can do this w/ stock little stands available at
Camping stores, etc.
YMMV,
Tom B-alias "Showerman"
On Jul 21, 2007, at 10:06 AM, Michael Elliott wrote:
> David Kao typed:
>> Please do not start a war on this.
>
> I second that.
>
>> It is really simple, do as much as we can to take care of the gray
>> water.
>
> It wasn't so very long ago that campers routinely took dumps behind
> trees and tossed their garbage down ravines. Fortunately for us
> developed campgrounds provide toilets and dumpsters so we don't
> have to
> deal with the former occupants' messes, and campers in undeveloped
> areas
> are a little more educated about proper disposal of waste.
>
> By the same token, if gray water from dish washing or showers
> becomes a
> significant problem more and more camp locations will regulate against
> spilling gray water just as we are expected not to deposit poop or
> strew
> garbage about. Bottling gray water and hauling it out would be a
> hassle,
> but the last place we camped at (Highland Lakes) had no trash
> pickup and
> we were required to haul our own trash out. The price of using the
> place.
>
> If a place to deposit gray water is provided, then the dish wash gray
> water is easy to deal with by using a container under the sink
> drain or
> a picnic table rinse tub, and dumping it into the provided receptacle.
> Shower gray water is a bit more difficult, as it down at ground level
> and harder to pick up and shift.
>
> If no dump place is available -- and we've never stayed at a place
> where
> there was one -- Mrs Squirrel and I try to dispose of our gray
> water in
> various random directions away from camp, never the same place twice,
> and spill it slowly to avoid eroding or disturbing the forest floor
> (leaves, needles, twigs, etc.).*
>
> The best thing that we (and all of us) can do is use mild soaps and
> take
> care not to leave a mess behind so whoever moves in after us or has to
> clean up after us doesn't find themselves looking at a soggy mud
> patch.
>
> ----------
>
> * I don't know if dispersed dumping is any better than dumping it
> all in
> the same place. It might look better to our eyes from our great
> height,
> but soaps and detergents probably kill lots of little multi- or
> no-legged critters that were otherwise minding their own business
> before
> The Downpour, so spreading the chemical-laden water about may be
> spreading the devastation of the smaller guys. I dunno. My guess is
> that
> a thin but wide spread of gray water is more destructive at their
> level
> than a dump pit used year after year, but it has less apparent
> effect at
> our level.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR
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