Drought: Could gray water recycling help?

Branched drain system for gray water: Someone levels the flow splitter.

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Greywater Corps

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A diverter valve near a washing machine helps recycle gray water.

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Greywater Corps

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One goal of Greywater Action workshops is to help homeowners feel like they can pick out the right parts for a water recycling system on their own.

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Molly Peterson/KPCC

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Greywater Action's Laura Allen shows interested property owners how to recycle water at home without a permit or an inspection.

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Molly Peterson/KPCC

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Washing machines are connected to special valves to create greywater systems. The valves divert water to sewers when people use bleach.

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Joe Shlabotnick/Flickr Creative Commons

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Gray water recycling could help Californians reduce water usage during the drought, but obstacles are slowing its adoption.

In light of the on-going drought, state officials are asking everybody to cut their water use by 20 percent.

One technique getting more attention these days is recycling so-called gray water.

California passed one of the first laws to allow home gray water use.

But obstacles have slowed wide-spread adoption.

KPCC's environment correspondent Molly Peterson reports.

After hearing Molly's piece, you may be inspired to go grey, so to speak, at your home.

For more on just how to do that, we hear again from Leigh Jerrard of Greywater Corps, who we heard from in Molly's story.

For information on a Greywater workshop, go to: http://greywatercorps.com/whatwscurrent.html