Save Our Rivers: Provide Tax Incentives for Greywater Use

Target: Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change Paul Tonko

Goal: Get tax incentives passed for installing greywater reuse systems in homes and businesses.

We are at the precipice of political battles over water use. Just recently, the Klamath Irrigation District defied orders from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to halt water use in the face of extreme drought conditions facing the area around the Oregon-California border. Local managers claim that shutting down water deliveries would ruin farmers and lead to severely reduced food production. The Klamath Tribes, on the other hand, need an absolute minimum water elevation in order for the fish dear to their history and culture to survive. Reusing water is essential to the future viability of civilization.

With water becoming more precious as extraordinary droughts wrack our country and world, we need to start managing it effectively now. We need immediate radical action to mitigate further disasters and political instability downstream. We are now in the midst of the climate crisis. The question is how severe the consequences will be.

Greywater reuse is a cheap and effective way to save water. Lightly used water from bathroom sinks, showers, tubs, and washing machines can be diverted from the sewer and used as an effective and fertile irrigation supply for gardens and lawns.  Systems for reusing greywater range from a simple laundry-to-landscape system where a valve attached to regular household plumbing switches between waste and greywater, to more complex industrial systems involving treatment and filtration.

If we implement these systems on a mass scale, the water savings could be enormous. Legislation with tax incentives for installing these systems could kick off a massive change to the way our society interacts with water at minimal cost, leading to a much healthier relationship with water use. These sorts of measures will be forced on us eventually. We are fortunate to have a brief window to start preparing now.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Congressman Paul Tonko,

Thank you for your hard work towards extending clean water capacity and combatting climate change. We are in the midst of a rapid escalation of drought and water insecurity, which is already leading to power struggles between local and federal governments. We have a limited window to mitigate the most serious consequences of climate change, and we need to act to preserve our water supply now.

According to Greywater Action, water reuse systems like the membrane bioreactor system used in the Solaris building in New York use less than 25% of the city’s freshwater than a regular waste system. By using lightly used water from washing machines, sinks, and showers for irrigation and toilets, homes and businesses can make huge savings on water at minimal cost.

In partnership with organizations like Greywater Action, we need to pass legislation promoting the use of water reuse systems on a massive scale. Using tax incentives, we can send a strong message to industry, families, and businesses that water reuse is the way of the future. We need to act now before water scarcity does irreparable damage to our ecosystems, industry, and communities.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: BLM