Is it OK to dump "gray water" on the ground?

    I agree with Ned & Bernie, we often leave the tanks for a couple of weeks.  Plus, we use only water, no chemicals.  You can search other previous strings that cover the matter in a lot of detail.  I think you will find very few advocates of chemicals in this forum, or amongst long time RVrs.

Ed

Whether from the kitchen or elsewhere, dumping on the surface does pose a public health hazard.

The county where I live is paying someone to go out and inspect every rural property in the county to look for dry wells.  They're condemning any that they find and requiring them to be dug up.

I don't necessarily believe that this is the best possible use of tax dollars.  People were installing these as late as the 1970s.

Times change, I guess.

I would never dump anything other than FRESH water (or bleach water) on pavement.  On Dirt is another issue and another thread no less.  (Depends on where said dirt is)

But on pavement.. ONLY FRESH water.

WENDY....  did the catus grow hair
H

When we built our NM house, 1999, I tried to fix the plumbing so that the shower water would dump into the yard and irrigate the trees.  The county inspector said "no" so we plumbed that water into the sewer.  Then a few years later, the state revised the Environmental Laws to allow, even encourage, "gray" water recycling for irrigation.  A settling tank is required IIRC but they clearly established the intent that "gray" water could be used locally for irrigation.  Now new houses have the option of two plumbing systems one for gray water discharge locally and one for black discharge into an approved sewage treatment system.  I guess RV parks could, if they chose to do so, do the same.  I doubt that RVs have the same options, but I don't know.  It doesn't bother me for a second to dump gray water at home, the plants appreciate it, but then we have several acres of land to buffer the drainage.  ???

Bit of warning is in order.  If you want to see a Park Ranger go ballistic, just try dumping gray water in a National Park or Monument.  Had a good friend get gnawed on for setting up a Sun Shower.

Carl L said:

Bit of warning is in order.  If you want to see a Park Ranger go ballistic, just try dumping gray water in a National Park or Monument.  Had a good friend get gnawed on for setting up a Sun Shower.

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Doesn't surprise me one bit...  the NPS pays a ranger with a gun to drive a Crown Vic around the campgrounds, once an hour, at Yosemite, to make sure that there are no vehicles parked on anything except crumbling asphalt, i.e., no parking on the dirt or fallen pine tree needles.  Then they have no one monitoring/helping the thousands of people climbing the wet, slippery rock "stair case" to the top of the waterfalls.  People are expendable, compacted dirt is protected by armed patrols.  It reminded me of the HSD. 

Yosemite Valley is a national park that threatens to become a rural slum at any moment.  The only thing that prevents that is a book of CS regulations enforced by a corps of CS rangers.  If a person wants a freedom thing, get a backpack and head to the back country.  Even there, there are rules to be followed.  Bears enforce some of them.

Carl L said:

Yosemite Valley is a national park that threatens to become a rural slum at any moment.  The only thing that prevents that is a book of CS regulations enforced by a corps of CS rangers.  If a person wants a freedom thing, get a backpack and head to the back country.  Even there, there are rules to be followed.  Bears enforce some of them.

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Maybe so... if that is the case, it would be very helpful if they would post some of this information on the NPS website for Yosemite.  We don't even know what "CS" means, much less what the "CS" regulations are...     We won't return so it matters not and we warn everyone who asks about it.  We worked pretty diligently to get there... and in hindsight would have never visited the place if we had only known the nature of the situation. 

taoshum said:

Maybe so... if that is the case, it would be very helpful if they would post some of this information on the NPS website for Yosemite.  We don't even know what "CS" means, much less what the "CS" regulations are...

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Sorry for the obscurity.  It is an old Army acronym.  The C stands for "chicken".

We won't return so it matters not and we warn everyone who asks about it.  We worked pretty diligently to get there... and in hindsight would have never visited the place if we had only known the nature of the situation. 

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In 2009, Yosemite NP received 3,737,472 visitors -- almost all in the Valley.  Uncontrolled by strict rules of behavior, those visitors would have pounded the Valley to dust, literally.  Example, studies have shown that uncontrolled parking on dirt and pine duff kills off trees by compressing the soil about their roots.  Uncontrolled dumping of graywater would convert the Valley to a national cesspool.

The Valley is still gorgeous.  I first visited in 1960 along with 1,150,400 other visitors.  The place is in better shape now than it was then.  The NPS and its supporters have performed miracles in keeping it so.

Rangers are not thick enough on the ground to cover the hundreds of miles of trails in the park.  Yosemite is about wilderness and beauty, it is not a woodsy theme park.  Each one of those rangers is a Federal bureaucrat drawing down a check from Washington.  How many more do you want out there?     

Unfortunately, there are many people who abuse the parks.  Some willfully, some out of ignorance.  With out rules and people to enforce the rules these people would soon ruin it for everybody. 

California is very restrictive in NOT allowing greywater to be dumped on the ground. For me, what some might consider to be a small amount of food waste might be a lot to someone else, leaving an unpleasant stink. I've seen people do it and it seems that they do it not long before they check-out, kind of a dump-and-run thing. I know I don't appreciate pulling into my site and seeing the last occupant dumped right at the site nor do I appreciate all the garbage that they left in the barbeque pit because they didn't want to walk it over to the Dumpster.

Guess it comes down to an etiquette sort of thing.

Carl L said:

Sorry for the obscurity.  It is an old Army acronym.  The C stands for "chicken".
Each one of those rangers is a Federal bureaucrat drawing down a check from Washington.  How many more do you want out there?

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Oh, CS, like the IRS.

Either a bureaucrat or a contractor, I don't know the difference, but I don't "want" any more... I just thought that they would have been more "helpful" if one or two had been assigned to the slick, wet, granite rocks to assist or call for medevac if/when one of the literally thousands of visitors slipped and fell 30-40 ft into the raging river instead of patrolling the parking lots giving out parking tickets/warnings for minor transgressions, like having one half of one wheel half on crumbling asphalt and the other half of one wheel on dirt when it is difficult to ascertain where the crumbling asphalt ends and the sacred dirt begins. 

JMHO, of course... I'm sure there is impeccable logic and reason to support every action they take.

Does your city post cops to assist pedestrians on rain slick sidewalks lest the slip and fall into the roaring traffic just a couple of feet away?    Think the Park Service Rangers as Smokey the Cops.

Carl L said:

Does your city post cops to assist pedestrians on rain slick sidewalks lest the slip and fall into the roaring traffic just a couple of feet away?    Think the Park Service Rangers as Smokey the Cops.

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Excuse me, former NPS Ranger wife here. Mike was not "Smokey the Cop", he was a Park Ranger. In the "old days" rangers were multi-purpose rangers...Mike did interpretation, maintenance, medical, law enforcement, everything. In recent years, law enforcement has been separated from other ranger functions in MANY (but not all) parks, mostly the larger parks and the urban parks where there is a crime problem. The folks who give talks and tours, who provide emergency medical attention, who collect fees at the entrance station, they are all Park Rangers. That Smokey Bear hat doesn't mean "cop". And, yes, they will assist when needed, they'll pick you up when you slip and fall, and they'll call for medevac when necessary.

Wendy

A few months after we arrived in California, my parents visited from the UK and we took them to Old Town Sacramento, which is a state park. We were sitting in the cafe (housed in the railroad waiting room), when I saw "Smokey" go by the window. Thinking he was one of the park characters, I went outside and asked if he'd mind pretending to 'hold up' my Dad with his gun drawn so I could take a photo.

That's when he politely explained he was a park ranger and, as such, was entitled to carry a weapon, and BTW the gun is real  :-[  He kindly posed for a photo, but the gun remained in its holster  ;D

Most people are not aware of what the Park Rangers do.  Certainly Wendy and Mike are most aware.  Many times I have observed the public ridicule and make fun of the Park Rangers.  As campground hosts we have had the opportunity to see some things first hand. 

Parks attract young people.  Frequently groups of young people.  Frequently groups of young people who have come to party.  Park Rangers deal with intoxicated people on a regular basis, and generally that is not pleasant.

Rangers are charged with enforcing regulations.  There are lots of people who become indignant when they are asked to comply.  Particularly when asked to bring little Johnny into compliance.  Don't believe it?  Remind drunken parents that little Johnny needs to put his life jacket on. 

It is not uncommon for law enforcement rangers to run license plate numbers of vehicles in the parking lot and find that visitors have wants and warrants out on them.  You would not believe how many people in the parks are using drugs.

Parked in your motorhome at a major park you may not be aware of these things.  But, Park Rangers deal with many problems common to all law enforcement.

Interpretative rangers are frequently forced to deal with the same issues, even though law enforcement is not in their job description. 

My point is; These guys (and gals) deserve a lot more respect.  They are civil servants, there to make our time in the parks safe and pleasant. 

Agreed George. It came home to me many years ago when we were camped at one of our favorite state parks. Because we were regulars, we'd developed a good rapport with the rangers. One evening there was a knock on the door, and a ranger asked "are you having generator problems?" I said "yes, and the darned thing was backfiring, so I shut it down". She breathed a huge sigh of relief and said "thank goodness for that; We got a report of someone firing shots down here".

Wendy said:

Excuse me, former NPS Ranger wife here. Mike was not "Smokey the Cop", he was a Park Ranger.

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"Smokey the Cop" was just a metaphor used in explaining why rangers are not lining the trails to guard hikers from harm. 

If one would want a description of ranger duties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_ranger should suffice.

A couple more points:

Enforcement Ranger candidates are required to be graduates of a recognized Police Academy.

From the site Carl refers to above " According to U.S. Department of Justice  statistics, National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers suffer the  most number of felonious assaults, and the highest number of homicides  of all federal law enforcement officers."