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  1. #1
    Site Sponsor Jerryr's Avatar
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    Dry camping and Grey Water

    I am in process of closing on a 3 acre private rural wooded site in Florida. We expect to spend 2 weeks there every 2 months or so. We will have power rather quickly but water and septic will take a while. There is a community dump site about 3 miles away.

    Others have told me that grey water shouldn't be a issue to dump on the ground on site. What is the opinion of more experienced campers?

    I plan on pumping my black tank using a macerator pump into a Blue Boy in the truck bed and bring it the 3 miles to the dump station

    Eventually I'll put in a septic tank on the property.
    Jerry & Linda
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  2. #2
    Big Traveler
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    What are Florida laws on gray water? Some states allow it to be dumped, some don't. Are you near water ( stream, etc) where you could contaminate? Can you put in a gravel area to dump gray water to filter? Personally, shower water, I don't see issue with if you use bio degradable soap. Kitchen water should be screened so not to be dumping food scraps...
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  3. #3
    Long Hauler LCBoyer's Avatar
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    It's against the law in Florida to dump grey water on the ground
    2018 Freedom Elite 24FE, 2 Yorkies, and my wife MARILYN, HAM call K0LCB. Traveling around this great country, making friends and seeing lot of beautiful and interesting places

  4. #4
    Site Team Second Chance's Avatar
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    A question and a thought: 1) would it be possible to put in a small septic tank that meets code? and, 2) I believe - and others have agreed - that our gray water smells much worse than our black tank output does (can't explain that one). I don't know how long that gray waste smell would hang around (if it were legal in Florida), but I don't think I'd want to find out.

    Rob
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  5. #5
    Full Timer warsw1's Avatar
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    Jerry, just make a drywell and run your gray water to it. If you just dump it on the ground it will eventually start to smell and attract every critter/bug in the area.

  6. #6
    Big Traveler Steve7's Avatar
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    If you're on your own wooded three acres, I would run a long garden hose away from the trailer to something like the dry well idea along with some small rocks in the bottom of the hole. I would also be careful not to put food down the kitchen sink, which we always do anyway. If a smell develops, fill in the hole and find another plan. There are Valterra caps for the dump pipe that have an alternative "hose" fitting on it.
    Steve & Sue (pups:Sky & Sierra) Gardnerville, Nv
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  7. #7
    Seasoned Camper jeffdawgfan's Avatar
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    Make yourself a small septic system like I did at our lake lot we used to have. I buried a 55 gallon metal drum with a inlet and outlet line. The inlet went to our grey water hose and the outlet went to a small "drainage field" I made of 2" PVC pipe with 1/8 holes drilled all in it. I think my drainage field was about 20 feet long and about 8 feet wide. I reversed the drain line back and forth 180 degrees three total times. We used that system for at least seven years and the present owner keeps his travel trailer there and still uses it. Never had a problem. Funny you cannot "dump" grey water but you can disperse it under the ground....go figure.
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  8. #8
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    Strange that you can take a shower at your outside shower but can't dump water from inside shower. Maybe laws state that you can't take a shower outside, don't know. I've dumped grey water a few times when necessary and it never seemed to smell after a short time (once it seeps into the ground). The longer the water sits in the tank, the more it will smell, so you could empty often. Your own small dry well as mentioned above would be a good idea.
    Gary

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  9. #9
    Fireside Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by GaryBro View Post
    Strange that you can take a shower at your outside shower but can't dump water from inside shower.
    +1 - never made sense to me. I will dump the bathroom gray tank and we make sure to only use natural soaps, especially careful of toothpaste with microbeads.

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