Wayne Haese 's systems allow homeowners to keep their lush grassy lawns in drought prone South Texas. If they want to use chemicals on their landscape he allows them to do so easily and at a depth of 6 inches so that they are less likely to run off. His code compliant systems enable the homeowner to use rainwater and re-use graywater with little or no effort or change in lifestyle.Wayne’s company, Grayscaping Inc, offers turnkey graywater, rainwater and hydroponic systems for both edible and non-edible plants that are somewhat more complex than other such systems. He is extremely careful to create fool proof systems that alleviate the fears of the most risk averse regulator.
He says that he helped educate Texas Natural Resources Commission on gray water and to have asked that they used the term “gray water” rather than “grey water”. His interest in words also shows in his fondness for trademarked coinages including: Grayscaping™ (gray water collection), Rainscaping™ (rainwater collection), and Rainponics™ and Grayponics™ which refer to hydroponic growing systems for edible and non-edible plants respectively.
He has systems for individual homes and for whole subdivisions. If you have an existing home on a concrete slab he cannot help you with either rainwater or graywater collection, though he will sell you a hydroponic unit.
His system is predicated on plumbing in a way that separates gray water sources from black water and with an existing slab the pipes just cannot be re-routed. He can look at houses with pier and beam foundations to see if they can be adapted but primarily though he works with new construction.
His graywater systems include settling tanks and filtration of the graywater. He always routes a line to feed filtered graywater to the perimeter of the foundation to prevent it from drying out. (Of course being thorough his system has monitoring that prevents water being routed their when it is not needed.)
He includes a patented access point to allow the injection of pesticides, herbicide and fertilizer into the gray water distribution system. (US Patent 6132138)
In his system the graywater is delivered six inches below the surface through a grid of pipes and valves. He offers an automatic feed to landscaping hydroponic planters.
He addresses a possible pitfall of graywater diversion by providing an automatic surge of graywater into the sewer line from time to time to make sure that the sewage makes it all the way to the sewer.
Grayscaping Inc also offers rainwater collection systems for individual homes. In their systems the rainwater can be supplemented by other water sources as needed. The system can also be used to provide water for edible landscaping or hydroponic units used for growing edible plants.
On a subdivision level Wayne Haese has developed detailed plans for central collection, filtration and redistribution of both rainwater and graywater. His innovations include specialized designs for trenches and trench liners to prevent cross contamination.
Wayne and his team were the featured speaker at the San Antonio Sustainable Living March 2010 meeting. He previously spoke to our group in 2001 or 2002.
