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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As grey water technology progresses, the biggest hurdle in getting the recycling systems into city homes will be in educating the public, according to a federal government expert.

Blachford Lake Lodge chef Simon Brown returns from a trip to the garden with a bowl of green lettuce. The lodge has two greywater holding tanks which are pumped into a leaching pit, similar to a septic field. - NNSL file photo

Aleta Fowler, a policy and planning advisor with the Canadian Northern Development Agency (CanNor), has been a long-time proponent of greywater recycling in housing developments. She was involved in a federal greywater recycling pilot project in Ndilo in 1997.

"When we go this way -- and I think this is the way to go from a cost standpoint, a greenhouse gas emissions standpoint, and in how we use our water – we need to make sure we have the training that goes with it," said Fowler. "People need to be educated in order to accept new technology. The more comfortable they are with it, the more they are inclined to see what it is all about."

City councillors recently omitted a portion of the general plan which would have required 30 waterside residences on Grace Lake developed with greywater recycling systems in place. Each unit would have been required to recycle a minimum of 50 per cent of water delivered by truck. The requirement is now to be introduced when a development scheme is submitted or when zoning is amended.

Fowler said the Yellowknife area has a long connection in trying to implement greywater recycling, especially after the Ndilo project. At that time, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) wanted to address high cost of utilities, especially for water. In partnership with the NWT Housing Corporation and Yellowknives Dene First Nation Housing, Fowler explored greywater use in one housing unit.

"What we found was that (the greywater system) reduced the need for household intake of potable water by about 60 per cent," she said. She added the system proved to be beneficial for road maintenance because water devivery by heavy trucks was reduced. In turn, greenhouse gas emissions were also reduced.

Funding for the pilot project was discontinued about five years ago and Fowler said those involved had not prepared for further implementation, in part because the public was not convinced of the social benefits from greywater recycling.

“It has to be something that the communities want,” she said. “We can give them the information but they have to decide. I personally felt it had a lot of promise, but it really has to be up to the communities. They need to see good information.”

Mayor Gord Van Tighem anticipates future housing in Yellowknife will feature more greywater recycling systems.

Greywater recycling has not taken off in the city because of limitations in the National Plumbing Code, which are to be changd by the fall. These include legal definitions of what constitutes an actual greywater treatment system.

Van Tighem said he is aware of greywater systems outside the municipality's limits, including at Blachford Lake Lodge, about 100 kilometres east of the city.

Two greywater holding tanks were installed in 1997, as well as a hybrid (generator-battery bank) system and composting toilets.

Lodge owner Mike Freeland said his system is much more basic than what the city is envisioning for future housing units.

"Our tanks are the same as any in Old Town that have greywater tanks," Freeland said. "The only difference is that we pump ours into a leaching pit whereas in Yellowknife they are pumped out into a truck."

Although the greywater tank system at the lodge is quite common, composting toilets at the lodge are quite unique to the North, Freeland said. The toilets do not use water and the resulting compost is used on flower beds.

Meanwhile, Dwayne Wohlgemuth built a LEED standard home in 2009 and is installing a greywater system that will support his greenhouse and help his efforts to conserve water.

"I haven't installed it all yet, but I have a design and I just basically have to have a pump and a filter to get it all working," he said. "My system will be able to recycle shower water and water from the sink in the bathroom and do a basic filtration for irrigation and the greenhouse."

Wohlgemuth says his model will recycle water five months of the year, primarily for irrigation.

After having done extensive research on the subject, he says that greywater systems would be most beneficial for housing areas which require trucked-in water services, such as with the planned Grace Lake development.

Troy Vassos, a leading expert in greywater recycling and an engineering consultant with Vancouver-based Nova-Tech Consultants, monitors emerging technology for recycling waste water and said that 85 to 90 per cent of water use in households involves non-potable water. Existing technology could have huge benefits, which can cost $40,000 a year to bring into a Northern household, he said.

"The truth is that what you drink and what you prepare your food with, is only 10 per cent of the water you use," Vassos said. "So this concept of the reuse of water and non-potable water is really an important and growing issue around the globe and not just in water-stressed areas like the North in terms of communities that have to truck their water in."

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