Tap water isn't just a commodity, it's a beverage.

Elissa Eubanks/AJc

Southface Energy Institute's Chris Theal sits amid fittings and copper pipe as he puts together a gray-water system for the institute's eco office in Atlanta.

Elissa Eubanks/AJC

Southface's new system will treat the water, ensuring that bacteria – a big issue in the recycle debate – aren't a problem.

Elissa Eubanks/AJC

Chris Theal of Southface Energy Institute estimates where a pipe will connect with a shower as he puts together a gray-water system to collect the water at Southface's eco office on Pine Street in Atlanta.

Charles Jones / AJC

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That's why, especially in the midst of a drought, some Atlantans cringe at the thought of flushing it down the commode.

"Putting drinking water down our toilets doesn't make sense," said Danny Feig-Sandoval.

The Atlanta contractor is among a handful of Atlantans who have installed gray-water systems in their homes, using recycled water to flush rather than wasting the clean stuff.

Gray water is water that has been captured from the shower, the tub, the bathroom sink or the laundry — not the toilet.

Those facilities account for more than half the water used inside the home, and, in these thirsty times, homeowners and civic leaders have been eyeing gray water as an untapped resource.

Last month, city leaders in Sandy Springs proposed guidelines that would require builders to install gray-water systems in new homes costing $500,000 and above, an attempt to make new development more eco-friendly.

An ad hoc statewide committee of experts in health, safety and water resources is currently developing model legislation for cities that want to approve gray-water use.

In the meantime, many Georgians have come up with their own gray-water solutions, collecting dishwater, bathwater and sink water in tubs and buckets to pour on plants and flowers or for other uses.

The system at Feig-Sandoval's Inman Park house takes those impromptu measures a step further.

Water from the shower, tub and bathroom sink are piped to a 50-gallon tank in his basement, where it is filtered and treated with chlorine. The disinfected water is then pumped back upstairs to the tanks behind his commodes.

Solutions at home

A similar system is being installed at the Midtown headquarters of the eco-consulting group Southface Energy Institute. Curt Mann, a Grant Park homeowner with bold eco-ideas, has one in his 1920s-vintage home.

Famous in his neighborhood for erecting a 45-foot windmill in his yard, Mann figures he can also save money and benefit the environment with a gray-water system.

Flushes of the commode account for about 30 percent of most indoor water use, which means Mann will be reducing his water bill by about a third. "When you do the math, with city of Atlanta rates today, the savings for us penciled a three- to four-year payback, so why not?" said Mann.

Why not? Gray-water recycling has vocal proponents. But there are roadblocks. Is gray water safe? And is it ethical to take water out of the river without putting it back?

Builders in Sandy Springs have objected to the additional burden represented by gray-water costs. (Sandy Springs officials are still debating the measure.) And water resource professionals say that many gray-water questions have yet to be answered.

The state's building code requires that all residential fixtures drain to either a public sewage system or an on-site sewage management system, said Ernest Earn, with the Water Protection branch of the state Environmental Protection Division.

Earn, who is part of the committee drafting the model gray-water legislation, said it will propose using the water only for flushing toilets, not for irrigation.

But Earn concedes that Atlantans, being Atlantans, will want to take advantage of any extra water in predictable ways, such as watering their plants.

Bacteria a threat

That can lead to trouble, said Todd Rasmussen, professor of hydrology and water resources at the University of Georgia's School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

Water drained from showers, tubs and sinks carries bacteria, he said, along with the dangers of hepatitis and AIDS. Kitchen sinks also pose a threat from food processing, and cloth diapers in the laundry can transmit fecal matter.

"I am for water reuse; I think that's the solution to a lot of our problems," said Rasmussen. "But how do we do this in a way that doesn't end up causing a worse health problem than we anticipated?"

Approved in-home sewage-treatment systems, such as the one installed by the Manns and the Feig-Sandovals, can eliminate those threats. They chose the Brac Greywater Recycling System, a Canadian product distributed here by Marietta-based Southern Energy Solutions (www.soenso.com) and Atlanta-based Mooring Tech (savewateratlanta.com).

"We've had dozens of inquiries from homeowners who want one, but our real market will be for developers," said marketing director Charles Cone, of the Marietta company.

That's because retrofitting a house with the system is much more difficult than installing it in new homes. "This is not something you'd do as a weekend project," said Cone.

Some homeowners have created their own systems. Lincoln Weis, a landscape architect and home renovator, has put together rain-collection systems for Trees Atlanta, for a community garden, and for his own use. He augments his own rainwater system with water recycled from the sink, shower, tub and laundry.

Shorting the river

Like many recyclers, Weis, a Virginia-Highland resident, doesn't treat his gray water.

While Weis and others use their additional gray water for irrigation, some experts recommend against that use. Outside of safety reasons, they point out that any water that doesn't return to the Chattahoochee River via the sewer system will reduce the river's flow to Florida and Alabama, necessitating additional releases from Lake Lanier.

"That's not helping our problem with our neighbors downstream," said Rasmussen.

But Weis doesn't buy that concern, and said his gray water, percolating into the soil, will recharge the ground water, and thus the Chattahoochee. "All of our water is a part of one system."

What Rasmussen and others would like to see is a move toward refining recycled water to a higher level of purity.

Called "purple water" (in reference to the color-coded pipes that transport this water), this recycled water is sometimes cleaner than tap water.

The Reynolds Plantation development along Lake Oconee in Greene County purifies its wastewater to "purple" water standards, and some contractors are installing purple pipe elsewhere in the state in anticipation of eventually adding treatment facilities.

This growing rainbow troubles some longtime professionals, including master plumber Philip Proctor, a plumber for 30 years and current plumbing plan review specialist for the city of Atlanta.

"We're getting too many colors," said Proctor, who points out that there is no definition for purple water in the plumbing code.

Proctor said we shouldn't rush to expand the definition of usable water.

Of gray water, he says, "We're still a little gun-shy."