Going Grey: Oak Park Home to Test Greywater Recycling

The Doyle family moved into their North Taylor Avenue home in 2003. Nine years and three kids later, they've been faced with a choice like so may other growing families — sell or expand.

After no buyers emerged for the three-bedroom American Foursquare home, the decision was pretty much made for them. Now, they've opted for an addition.

But for Ana Garcia-Doyle, there was yet another obstacle. The 42-year-old blogger and organizer with the Green Community Connections volunteer group was concerned with the home addition's larger footprint. The addition will mean more energy, more water, more waste.

“How do we make this green and livable for a family?” she asked.

The solution comes in the form of a massive home makeover, complete with the installation of a geothermal energy system and the state's first greywater recycling system in a single-family home. (The other two residential greywater systems are located in Chicago; one is the Yennel House, more of a marketing showcase for a "net zero" home; the other is a 96-unit low-income housing facility on the near north side.)

Greywater is water from bathroom sinks, showers, washing machines and tubs. It looks dirty, but a growing number of water conservation proponents say its safe to collect and reuse for a variety of purposes, from irrigating yards to flushing toilets. And experts say greywater collection can cut down on the amount of water sent through the area's agings sewer infrastructure. For a great explainer, see Greywater Action's page.

But under the state's current plumbing code, which is drawn up by the Illinois Department of Public Health, greywater recycling systems are illegal, ostensibly for safety and sanitary reasons.

"There's been hesitation and uncertainty on the part of the Illinois Department of Public Health to ensure the greywater systems are safe, essentially because you are intentionally introducing some risk in that you're giving access or contact to essentially dirty water," said Josh Ellis, a programming director with the Metropolitan Planning Council and a longtime water conservation proponent. "So it’s taken a while to win the argument that there’s a way to win the balance of public health issues with desire to use plumbing systems to conserve and manage water resources more efficiently."

That meant Garcia-Doyle had to mount her campaign scratch, embarking on a project that remains only quasi-legal. She began by writing a rationale latter to the village (attached), then pleaded with IDPH and to the that agency’s West Chicago branch, then back to IDPH officials in Springfield. Along the way, leaders in Oak Park petitioned the IDPH to grant the Garcia-Doyle home a variance.

Garcia-Doyle's environmental ambitions fits with the water conservation component s PlanItGreen initiative, which fits in with Oak Park's stormwater management efforts, all of which fall under the broad umbrella of new regional policies geared toward the proper conservation and reuse of water.

Related: Patch's PlanItGreen coverage

That she had so many heavy-hitting local voices in her corner is a confluence of "more than one group of people looking at the same concept as solution to lots of different issues," said K.C. Poulos, Oak Park's sustainability manager.

Eventually, the variance was granted.

The manufacturer of the Doyle's new greywater system, Indiana-based NuVale Products, has produced a five-minute YouTube video explaining how the system works. At the Doyle's Oak Park home, Loop Construction has already begun the process of “deconstruction," an alternative to demolition that cuts down on construction waste and promotes reuse or resale of teardown materials.

Garcia-Doyle and her husband Jim are hoping to have the renovations complete later this fall, right in time for the Green Community Connections second bike tour, which takes riders to more than a dozen enviromentally educational stops.

When it's complete, the family has ballparked they'll save an estimated 27 percent on their water bills, but it's "not that our water bill was pushing us over the edge," Garcia-Doyle said.

It's more about starting somewhere and maybe inspiring a few people along the way. In fact, she's hoping the pioneering effort will soon be seen as antiquated.

"I'm hoping that one day, we're going to have the worst greywater system in Oak Park because it was the first," she said.

Grey Matter

A funny thing happened while Ana Garcia-Doyle embarked on her quest — the state Legislature caught up. Sort of. On March 28, the Illinois House passed House Bill 4496, which establishes a timetable for the Illinois plumbing code to be updated "to reflect advances in those technologies and methods that more efficiently utilize natural resources and protect public health."

The bill is awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn's signature.

Again, the impact from the Doyle home will be negligible. It's one old home out of thousands in Oak Park. But it's a start. And HB 4496 could pave the way for counties and municipalities to establish building standards for new development.

In Oak Park, that may already be the case. Poulos said the installation of greywater recycling systems at new developments throughout the village is getting discussed as part of a new comprehensive plan.

Editor's Note: Ana will be blogging the progress of her family's innovative home project on Patch. You can find her first entries

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