A legitimate way of dumping grey water on the street

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Riley90

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Oct 30, 2021
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So if washing a car on the street is legal in your city, and your greywater is relatively clean(just some wash water), you can hook up your greywater tank and rinse your RV. No one would call cops on you, right?
 
The smelly should come from bacterias and foods with all the soap we used to shower/toothbrushing. I don't see why it will smell unless you are dumping kitchen waste in it. We can put kitchen waste into the trash bin instead.
 
Roy M said:
What would be the point but it's your rv so do what you want.
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The point is I can't find any place to dump wastewater in San Jose, CA. I can use a portable toilet and dump black tank to a public restroom, but for the number of grey waters( they can easily go 20-40 gallons a day), I can't really move it, the nearest dump station is 18 miles away at Redwood City, and it costs $25.

It would be helpful if I had a friend in the city who could let me drive by and run some hose to refill water and dump greywater a few times a month, but I do not have a friend :(
 
Grey tanks often smell worse that black tanks due to food debris that gets washed off of plates and such, settles in the tank and rots. Just because it is not black water doesn't mean that there is no bacteria or odor.
 
Washing the exterior of your RV with soap and water is not the same as dumping RV gray water into a drainage system for city streets. Gray water is another kind of sewage that is rife with bacteria, pathogens, and that's not where it belongs. I'm guessing there is a municipal law that forbids that practice. Since it's California, the ticket if you are caught is probably many times what it would cost to dump legally.
 
Dig a hole in the ground right under your sewer pipe and just crack open your drain valve and just let it seep into the ground just like a leach field. In the morning fill the hole back in.
 
I would not dump any significant amount of grey water on the ground or in the city drains. I have dumped small amounts into the street drain (like 5 gallons) but followed it up with lots of rinse water from the hose.

From your post number 6 it appears you are boondocking or sneakaboarding. I am surprised you find public toilets willing to accept black water bucket dumps.

It may be a PITB but if your bucket brigading of black water works you could also bucket brigade grey water even though as you point out it's more buckets.
 
Ex-Calif said:
I would not dump any significant amount of grey water on the ground or in the city drains. I have dumped small amounts into the street drain (like 5 gallons) but followed it up with lots of rinse water from the hose.

From your post number 6 it appears you are boondocking or sneakaboarding. I am surprised you find public toilets willing to accept black water bucket dumps.

It may be a PITB but if your bucket brigading of black water works you could also bucket brigade grey water even though as you point out it's more buckets.
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For a portable toilet like this, the 5.3-gallon black tank can easily be packed in a backpack, and most public restrooms are unsupervised. I have not tried yet, but I don't see any reason they would stop me from doing this. I don't think there is a difference if the container is a human or a plastics box when using a toilet.

Yes, dumping greywater to a public restroom is doable, just excessive work. It also causes extra attention for someone playing with their RV grey water valve on the street to transfer water to a portable container. Actually, I think it brings more attention compared to "rinsing your RV."

I read the response. It seems the biggest problem with greywater is Bacteria and odors. I wonder if that would still be a problem if I 100% prevented food waste into greywater? For example, don't waste food and use paper bowls. Throw them in the trash bin instead of washing oily dishes. So there are only minimal oil and stuff into the water. The largest source of gray water is bathing, washing face, and laundry. And maybe consider adding a WSP-50 spin down to remove big stuff and add some bleach to remove the bacteria?

People wash their cars with an oily engine, bird poop, and other stuff all the time. When we are rinsing RV with carefully controlled greywaters, I don't think it's much worse than that. And I felt it has less impact on the environment than the emission from a 5 MPG RV driving around to dump stuff.

But after all, the most important thing is if it is legal or not.
 
If you can drink your gray water, do it. If not, put it in a tank that treats it before it goes to the waterways. If you are out on land it's one thing, city drain water system, no no.
 
To add some compassion to this thread, the city of Seattle is spending public resources to help clean up after homeless RV-goers. There's been so much dumping of solid waste, black and gray water on city streets--they just open their tanks--that they are going around and collecting waste because it's a hazard to public health and terrible for the environment. This says nothing of the OP's situation, I'm just pointing out a local trend here in the NW.

There are a lot of at-risk people who can't afford to move their RV's or pay to dump out and their RV is the only thing they have left. I feel bad and wish there were better solutions and better public access to get rid of waste. But I also think it stands that if you can afford to properly dispose of your waste, you should.
 
There are THREE classes of waste water in an rv
black (you know what that is)
Gray (Includes the KITCHEN sink,, food particles)
Wash (Shower. Lavs. cloths washer No kitchen sink or dish washer)

Rules about dumping on ground
Black. Don't even stink about it.
Gray.. a few places
Wash .. More places
However in no case is it ALL places.
 
I wonder why there aren't more dump stations. In Canada a great many towns and municipalities set up free dump stations that just connect into the sewer lines. A lot of times they are in industrial sections of town or near a public utilities yard but at least they are free. The town I live in has a free one with rinse water and potable to fill your fresh tank back up. I've even found them in the corners of malls on the highway to entice RVs to stop by and hopefully shop. We found a bunch of Wallmarts last summer that had them set up - free for anyone stopping in for groceries on their way through town. Compared to the massive volume the area sends to the treatment plant the RV volume is a drop in the bucket and it prevents wayside dumping. Is there some sort of law or ordinance that prevents this in the USA?
 
I have used several municipal dumping stations in the NE US. They may not be common, or even advertised, but some do exist. A call to the department of public works will usually provide an answer.
 
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