Page 11 - the NOISE January 2013

come your irrigation habits.
It’s difficult to say exactly how much
water a grey water system can save, it depends on many factors, how much water you use in the home, how efficient your system; but just think based on Flagstaff’s gallons per capita, an average person safely uses about 1,500 gallons of potential greywater per month — enough to keep several fruit trees alive and happy.
So how do you go about learning how to design and install grey water systems? I recommend that you read Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Build- ing, and Using Greywater Systems by Art Ludwig. This book will teach you how to design some 20 different grey water system designs; I’m sure one of them will fit your needs and aesthetic tastes. Grey water systems and rainwater catchment are not the only methods of sustainable water management that can be imple- mented at the do-it-yourself scale; there are dozens of other strategies that can transform your yard, your city, your life.
We all here in Arizona are desert crea- tures, don’t be fooled. We need to adapt to our arid environment. The problem is many people believe that to adapt we have to give up and sacrifice, they see it as a loss. That’s because they just don’t know! In this case, ignorance is not bliss, it is an environmental and social disaster waiting to happen.
Cody Lundin of the Aboriginal Liv- ing Skill School teaches the distinction between wilderness survival and wilder- ness living. Survival is simply not dying, living is how to thrive in your environ- ment. As desert creatures we don’t want to just survive in our desert environment, we want to thrive! By adapting to our arid environment we can prosper here in the desert.
The sad fact is that in this modern era, drought is much a function of water re- source mismanagement, as it is an en- vironmental factor. The political leaders of the City of Flagstaff have an excellent grasp of water issues and are taking posi- tive, ecologically sane, steps to adapt Flagstaff to the arid environment. It is important that as citizens remember, po- litical change does not begin in City Hall, political change begins in your backyard, and it begins in your mind, it begins with your actions. If you want your city to adapt to the arid environment in a sane way, you have to start that process your- self. You have to get educated, your have to read, take workshops, do it! Most im- portantly you have to develop your own vision of sustainable living!
The Water Resources Master Plan is on the city’s website, flagstaff.az.us. On a related note, Water Utilities Director, Brad Hill will be presenting a new report on Flagstaff’s current water issues to City Council January 8, which is open to pub- lic comment.
| Wes Ozier has taught perma- culture design for over 15 years. wesozier@mail.com
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So what kind of “research” did ADEQ do?
The thin packet of documents I received from my FOIA request did determine “research” was done. ADEQ photocopied California’s wastewater rule regarding snowmaking with treated sewage effluent and took screen shots from a private company website that markets a machine called “SnowFluent.” This equipment turns municipal or commercial sewage into snow for winter storage in very cold climates.
I called SnowFluent and they were horrified when I asked if one could ski on SnowFluent snow. A sales representative replied “heavens no!”
No other documentation was included in the FOIA request showing research into the health effects of skiing on wastewater snow and from my conversation with Mr. Graf, I can say with great certainty that no research of any kind was ever done to determine if skiing on snow made from reclaimed wastewater is safe.
Unfortunately, this thin layer of research, which, on its merits, is far from compelling, was sufficient for ADEQ to add one single word to a table of allowed uses in the appendix of their final rule. That one word, with no further expla- nation or defining terms, is: “snowmaking.”
In January 2001, ADEQ sent its final rule to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Board for approval. Legally, the governor must review and approve the rule before it could be imple- mented. In that document, ADEQ maintained that “public comments swayed” it to add snow- making to the rule book.
The USFS and the City of Flagstaff rely solely on the fact that ADEQ determined reclaimed wastewater “snowmaking” a regulated use, pre- suming that all of the necessary health research had been accomplished. One small problem re- mains in reading the rules regarding reclaimed wastewater — these rules are to be applied to the “direct reuse” of the substance.
As it is utilized now atop the San Francisco Peaks, snowmaking is not the “direct reuse” of this substance. The rule the governor approved states the following (R18-9-704):
“Prevent reclaimed water from coming into contact with drinking fountains, water coolers, or eating areas;
“Direct reuse for swimming, wind surfing, water skiing, or other full-immersion water activity with a potential of ingestion are prohibited.”
So all these years I was asking the wrong question. Which is exactly what Snowbowl, the USFS, and the City of Flagstaff relied on.
It turns out that while snowmaking was made legal, the “direct reuse” is “skiing” and “sledding” and could be, due to the nature of its current use, considered illegal according to the
rule.
Now I have a new question — Why is ADEQ
allowing the City of Flagstaff, the USFS, and the Arizona Snowbowl to break the law?
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• JANUARY 2013 • 11