CALIFORNIA AND MOST OTHER STATES

ReWater's subsurface emitters are made especially for for the underground use of greywater and do not clog from root intrusion or internal matter due to their patented design, US Patent #5,217,323.  They have the largest water orifice on the market (12 gpm).  Every time the pump comes on, a powerful cleansing surge sends any particulates through the emitter orifice into the air-gap and through the screen that interfaces with the soil. 

Even post-filtration suspended solids and the solids caused by down-stream bio-accumulation, sometimes called scaling, can be passed into our emitters then out to the soil, where they are broken down by indigenous aerobic microbes into fulvic and humic acids, which are literally plant nutrients. The water and those nutrients are then absorbed by roots, thereby removing all the organic solids in greywater.  Contrast this process with a leach field, which only disposes of those solids deep in the soil, where only anaerobic microbes live, leaving the unbroken-down solids to line the interior walls of the leach fields and eventually clog up, causing expensive leach field replacement years later.

Another big problem with most underground drip irrigation emitters is root intrusion. To defeat root intrusion, our emitters have an air-gap separating the water orifice from a screen interface that separates the soil from the inside of the emitter.  When our system's pump turns off, the resulting air-gap in the emitters blocks roots from growing up into the emitter orifice.  This screen lets the roots come inside the emitter body to feed on the water and nutrients, but once inside the emitter, the roots find their food, and become aqueous to better absorb the moisture and nutrients. They do not continue farther upwards towards the orifice due to the air gap. This process has been proven by the Center for Irrigation Technology at CSU Fresno, as required by the California greywater code, (Chapter 16 of the California Plumbing Code, formerly Appendix G) but also by real world experience of designing, building, installing, permitting, servicing, technical support, and consulting on this type of system since 1990.  We do not rely on chemicals or maintenance to keep our California-approved emitters working over the long haul. 

No other emitter has been proven to work underground with greywater over a long period of time.  If some other manufacturer says their emitters will work underground with greywater, ask them to show you a system that has worked underground with greywater over a long period of time.

Other advantages of ReWater's emitters in the soil is that they are safe from foot traffic, rakes, dogs, kids, lawn mowers, and other threats to sprinklers and conventional drip tubing.  Also, in the soil, none of your water is lost to evaporation, over-spray, or run-off, the three largest causes of water loss with sprinklers.

A discussion of emitters that work with our systems and are accepted by Arizona can be found at the bottom of this page.

A series of photos showing installation of a tree in a lawn that already has ReWater's subsurface emitters

ARIZONA AND OTHER STATES

Arizona and some other states allow the use of greywater in above-ground emitter systems.  While there are numerous types drip emitters and tubing with in-line emitters on the market, only one type of emitter has been proven to our satisfaction to continuously function correctly without extensive and sometimes very expensive maintenance, and that is a snap-on emitter that can be manually cleaned out.  We prefer Toro's DPJ04 (2 gph) emitters. 

The main advantage of this type of emitter is they can be quickly opened up manually for cleaning, should they start to clog or even be clogged.  By opening them up and turning on the water pressure, you can blow them out in seconds; be sure to screw them back together. They also have relatively large orifices compared to most in-line emitters, so are less prone to clogging due to the post-filtration solids in greywater and the scaling it causes. 

Another advantage over in-line emitters is they can be used to compensate for uneven irrigation pressure caused by uneven terrain; just install less emitters in areas that are downhill of the majority of the irrigation drip line.  The reason for this is that, as with sprinkler lines and any other form of water in a pipe, water flows by gravity to the lowest spot when the water pressure is turned off, causing the lowest emitters to receive slightly more water than the other emitters on that irrigation line; on a daily bases, this causes the lowest area to become wetter than the rest of the area being irrigated by that irrigation line.