Wash Sink Comments

I was surprised to see that my sink project brought in several comments. Here's a few......

"F" wrote to say, "My Health Department wouldn't approve such an arrangement." 

My response....of course not! The officials from the "governmental departments to make us sad" (not my invention. Paul Wheaton's the inventor of this saying)... often have no common sense. They can only read their black & white regulations and enforce them without expending an iota of mental calories. Thinking is often not on their schedule. This particular sink will be rinsing dirt off of tools and off of my hands. Since my hands are being washed, the water is now termed "waste water" and thus needs to be disposed of via a septic system or approved greywater system. Aaawwww, give me a break! How come it's ok for me to work barehanded in my garden soil for hours every day, but heaven forbid I use water to wash off the dirt and allow it to drain onto the soil. Eh, what's the difference? Oh ok, I use soap to help rinse off the grime. Since when was soap toxic to the environment? If it is deemed so dangerous to the environment that it needs to be diverted to a septic system, then what the heck is it doing to me when it's on my own skin? The government is more concerned about environment safety than my own safety? Guess so. Oh yeah, these same officials don't mind if I make a soap solution to spray on my veggie plants to kill aphids.....so what is their concern? The soap? My shed skin cells? The water? No, all those things appear to fine taken separately, but combining them seems to be the rub. No, I just don't see the sense of their argument. (By the way, my same county government sees no problem with spraying hundreds of gallons of herbacides on the roadsides here 5 days a week, herbacides residues which definitely filter down into the watershed! Where's their concern and  septic system for those chemicals?) 

By the way, the water from this sink is being channeled to a banana tree. Thus the tree will absorb much of the water rather than it filtering down through the watershed system. 

How to handle waste water is a whole other topic that I won't get into right now. The health department and waste water department have their own ideas, but the folks around here who live rural and often in dry areas have different views. Many folks here value water to the utmost and don't waste a drop, especially their greywater. And those folks who must live on very, very small amounts of residential water have home systems that don't even generate black water. Water is too precious to waste on flushing. 

Ok, ok. I'm ready to slip into a rant. Take a deep breathe..practice a little TaiChi or yoga breathing....meditate.....oooommmm. 

"I'm ok now, Dave." 

I tend to be practical. While I wouldn't advocate creating a dangerous situation, I can see no real problem with watering a banana tree with the runoff from this particular sink. 

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Next question: "P" wanted to know how much the system cost me. I'd say around $70. I paid cash for the tank, the faucet set up, and a few screws. Everything else was from my farm boneyard. If one saves enough "junk", one finds things to make out if it. 

Next question: "T" asked, "I bet you don't have much water pressure." True. But I simply put a plug in the sink drain and fill up the bowl. This gives me plenty of water to wash my hands or rinse off tools. But once the water tank is full, the pressure will be much higher and more than adequate. 

Next question: "C" wanted to know what the black things were. They are plastic pallets. I could have used wooden pallets but I had these laying around looking for a project to be used on. I've been told that these plastic ones will hold up better under the weight of the water tank. 

Next question: "B" asked me what color I was going to paint the tool shed. I'm not sure yet. Either some color to blend into the surroundings (greenish, brownish, grayish), or possibly traditional barn red. 

Final question so far: "R" wants to know where I get all my recycled stuff. Mostly it comes from people that know me. I have a reputation of being a scrounger. Plus I'm not above retrieving useable things from the dump. (I even have a t-shirt that says dumpster diving team member!)  I got the pcv pipe, rain gutter, and sink from the dump. The pallets came from a local grocery store looking to have them hauled away. This sink set up may not be pretty, but it's quite serviceable. 

Comment: "S" wrote, "Very snazzy set-up, with the tank and spigot and all!"

Comment: "T" said, "Nice idea, I need one in my own yard." 

Comment: "B" emailed - "I wish I could collect rainwater where I'm living. I tried to once but the HOA made me take it apart. Some day I'm going to move out into the country. There's no freedom living with a HOA."