Greywater Corp’s Favorite Books on Greywater and Beyond
Do you ever miss books? We sure do. And while there are a ton of excellent greywater resources online, sometimes we need something trustworthy that we can hold in our hands. These are our top 4 books on the very practical matter of how to design, build and maintain greywater systems:
By Art Ludwig
Art was one of the first people to publish a comprehensive DIY guide on home greywater systems. The first edition of his book was released in 2000, a full decade before California rewrote its plumbing code to legalize the act of reusing greywater for irrigation. It was a huge inspiration to the founding of Greywater Corps in 2009, and an invaluable practical resource to this day. If you are serious about DIYing the best possible greywater system for your situation, this deep dive is definitely for you.
By Laura Allen
A standout figure of the greywater movement, Laura Allen started the Greywater Guerillas in Berkley in the pre-legalization days. Since then she has grown her organization into the Greywater Action we know today, a leading institution in greywater advocacy, education and training in California and around the world. But all of this hasn’t stopped her from putting out this detailed and visually captivating practical guide that captures all of the intricacies that go into effective home greywater systems.
By Laura Allen
We’ve had the pleasure of training and working with Laura, and we’ve never met anyone as relentless in their efforts to conserve water. In her second book she pulls out all of the stops, branching out beyond greywater to an array of water saving measures including rainwater reuse and composting toilets. This complete guide will help you take a holistic look at your home water use, addressing problems at the source and sourcing water from every possible direction.
By Brad Lancaster
Spanning several volumes, Brad Lancaster’s series covers a breadth of topics on how to conceptualize, design, and implement water, sun, wind, and shade harvesting systems, including greywater and rainwater. These volumes offer a comprehensive approach, teaching a wide array of solutions that can be tailored your situation and goals – saving water, energy, the planet and a whole lot of money along the way.
Bonus:
by Marc Reisner
At times this book reads like Mr. Reisner had a personal vendetta against certain historical leaders of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other government agencies. Perhaps he did. Perhaps we all do. He makes a strong case for believing that said agency and others like it have robbed the American people of a lot of money and, vastly more important, a lot of water and land. As usual, Native American groups faced the worst of the pillaging, large money interests received the spoils, and much of it was done for nothing. We’ll throw this in as a bonus because while it doesn’t talk about greywater or other practical solutions to our water woes, it points to their origins, and to how we got where we are in the American West.