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Gray Water Use in New York

Being a New York green contractor involves pushing two very important elements through DOB code approval: 1. composting toilets 2. gray water and rain water for flushing toilets.

We recently tried to get composting toilets approved for our Passive House in Harlem but it got shot down. We will persevere trying to get it legalized in NYC [...]

Gray Water or Rain Water

In Eco Brooklyn’s brownstones we are still weighing the options of using rain water or gray water for flushing the toilets. So far we have always decided on doing the gray water, letting the rain water drain into a dry well in the back yard.

Here are two sketches Joe Schafer my water engineer drew up [...]

What Gray Water Systems are available?

Every Brooklyn brownstone should have a gray water system to feed the toilets, green roof, living wall and garden.

Unfortunately there are few systems to choose from. They range between $2,000 and $7,000 for the unit not including running the extra drains from the shower, bathtub, sink and washing machine.

Right now in the [...]

Bromine as a Chlorine Alternative for Gray Water

We’ve been looking for a chlorine alternative for our Brooklyn brownstone gray water systems. Chlorine is not ideal because it gives off fumes. I’ve also read that when the chlorine molecules bond with the soil particles it alters the chlorine into a form called Chloramine that causes cancer. This is a concern if using the [...]