CONSULTING


ReWater was founded in 1990 by Stephen Wm. Bilson. After working two years as a participant on the California Graywater Ad-Hoc Committee, in 1992 Mr. Bilson sponsored Assembly Bill #3518, which passed unanimously and resulted in the first-of-its-kind state greywater irrigation law, Water Code Section 14875 et seq. He then worked two years helping to write the state greywater irrigation code for single-family systems, Appendix G of the California Plumbing Code (CPC), then sponsored Assembly Bill #313 to allow multi-family, commercial, and institutional systems under that code. He worked another two years with the state to revise that code. In 2008-2009, per SB #1258, he helped substantially revise the state code to essentially make it user-friendly. That code is now found as Chapter 16-A of the CPC, and it allows greywater irrigation anywhere in California when all code criteria are met. Mr. Bilson has also been involved in other states’ efforts to legalize greywater irrigation as well.

From 1990 until now, Mr. Bilson has worked only on greywater irrigation related projects, ranging from simple residential systems saving a few hundred dollars in water per year to complex commercial systems savings thousands of dollars of water and wastewater costs per year. He has helped clients all over the Western US with landscapes as diverse as desert to virtually tropical. He was the RMO for ReWater’s landscape contractor’s license and provided hands-on supervision of numerous residential and commercial landscaping projects.

Every ReWater® system is essentially the same, but every home or other building and every landscape is quite unique. ReWater will gladly assist any of your building professionals for $200 per hour. If your architect provides us with your project’s Autocad drawings, ReWater can easily integrate our 3-D system into those drawings, providing you with plan and details sheets. Most licensed plumbers are capable of installing our filter system using ReWater’s drawings, instructions, and DVD. If your landscape architect provides us with your landscaping plan on Autocad, we can provide you with detailed irrigation drawings. If you have a licensed landscape contractor with expertise in drip irrigation, they should be able to easily install the irrigation portion of ReWater's system.

Due to climate-change, drought, groundwater over-pumping, and recent court orders reducing water deliveries to Southern California, ReWater is busier than ever these days. Up to $600 of ReWater’s consulting fees are deductible from the cost of a fully automatic single-family ReWater system; please note that multi-family, commercial, and institutional systems produce much larger volumes of water and thus have a much higher ROI, but also have far more planning and permitting requirements and thus are not eligible for this deduction.

In new construction, a greywater irrigation system is always cost effective. In a LEED project, our systems will provide by far the most cost effective LEED points you can get. We work on LEED projects all the time and can help your LEED AP quickly understand our system’s values, if they don’t already.
 

THE MONETARY VALUE OF GREYWATER IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

San Diego County Analyses

Provided by Stephen Wm. Bilson of ReWater Systems, Inc.

As a source of water, at a current average mid-tier retail price of $2.47 cf, 3.6 acre feet over a 20 year system life = $3,873 –

     1996 AWWA National End-Use Survey Average is 39 gallons per person per day

     39 gallons x 3.2 people average occupancy per household = 125 gpd

     125 x 365 days per year = 59,312 gallons per year

     59,312 gallons x 1.3 efficiency increase due to drip irrigation (USDA)  = .18 AF

     .18 AF x 20 yrs (SWRCB) = 3.6 Acre Feet (AF)

As the value of a basic irrigation system (controller, valves, tubing, etc.), $1,500

As a method of wastewater reduction, $3.22/100 cf (SD Metro Wastewater, 2007, pre rate increase) x 3.6 AF = $5,050

                  Total quantified values: $10,423 per system at 2007 rates.

As a method to eliminate the need for upgrading the Pt. Loma sewer treatment plant to secondary standards = $1.5 billion.

As a method for the region to sell more reclaimed water to builders who would have a level playing field with everyone using some form of reused water = $13 million per year

As a method to lower mitigation costs of water transfers effecting the Salton Sea or Bay Delta = about $9 billion plus interest, or about $18 billion.

As a method of eliminating irrigation & reducing urban run-off pollution prevention to meet the new RWQCB rules, according to the CBIA = $20,000 per home

As a method to reduce new residential energy demand and postpone need for building new generating facilities = the interest on postponing construction ($2 billion) of those new facilities = @ $1 billion.

As a method to reduce air pollution due to reduced energy demand and less green house gases spewed into the atmosphere = the value of less asthma and other lung disease (arguably priceless, but at least in the millions of dollars per year in a decade or so, and much more later on as the cumulative effects of air pollution become manifested).

                  Total unquantified values over 20 years: tens of billions of dollars.

 

Call ReWater with questions at (805) 262-2954 or email us at support@rewater.com.