Waterless Composting Toilet approval

I've mentioned previously that Kyle and I are pretty keen to go with a waterless composting toilet. We've done a lot of research and concluded that building our own is the easiest/cheapest/most reliable path for us to take to get there. We know that for an owner-built model NSW Health does not need to approve our system (this used to be required, but as of 2006 ammendment to the rules, and a later complete regulatory update, NSW Health delegates authority to the local council to approve so long as you aren't manufacturing them). We also know that most people in Australia who have built something similar haven't sought council approval. This isn't an option for us, as details of waste management are required as part of the development application for the house so if we don't succeed with this we'll have to put in a septic system and flushing loo's, which would be a shame. But it means we don't have much to go on about how to actually get it approved.

The Council hadn't had an application for an owner-built WCT before and weren't sure what kind of paperwork to ask for, so we politely suggested we might use the guidelines from the original regulation (from back in 1997) and see how that went.

Given the Council's unsure-but-game attitude we figure there's then a little bit of pressure on us to dot our i's and cross our t's so we don't muck it up for anyone else who wants to do this in the future. If Council has a good experience this time around, and are confident of our ability to avoid risk to the public health, they'll be more likely to look favourably on such applications in future. To that end, I've prepared what I hope is a very thorough application for a Waterless Composting Toilet.

Firstly, what is even required in such an application? According to the old rules:

1. Plans and Specifications for the proposed WCT (details of which are specified further)
2. Householder's Reference Manual outlining installation/operation/maintenance/trouble-shooting (the contents of this are specified further)
3. Placard with basic instructions to be hung on the wall next to the WCT
4. "Any further information required by the Council" (they haven't yet asked for anything in particular)

After initial approval, there's a process of inspections every few years as well (more forms and money to be paid).

What we wanted to do in the beginning was simply get approval to use a Jenkins-style loveable loo. However, the regulations specifically state that owner-built models must be the owner's own design, and that the health department is aware there are plans available on the internet. So really, if you want someone else to design it for you you have to buy an officially registered model. Since the only officially registered model that even approaches the functional simplicity and published evidentiary basis of Jenkins version is over $900 (which is more than double what it will cost for us to apply for approval and build the thing anyway), and then you have to order specially designed extra buckets on top, we decided to push ahead with a more 'original' version. I've done a lot of research, and have spent a lot of time trying to walk a delicate borderline between existing models that are evidenced to work well (being totally original strikes me as a fundamentally bad idea for this kind of thing) and designing for our particular circumstances and environment as the regulations require.

So, this is what we're sending:

For anyone reading this into the future, I will point out that you cannot use this document in Australia as the basis to put forward your own application (so far as I'm aware - specific local councils might have set up their own regulatory frameworks). The regulations are very specific that owner-built models must be of the owners own design, not simply plans downloaded off the internet (it states this in pretty much those words). This document is intended as an example, because that's exactly what would have been helpful to us to look at before we had to write our own.

At this point various people from the Council have already seen drafts of this document and offered advice, however this has not yet been approved. I've emphasised to everyone we've spoken to that we want to get this right, and whilst we've done our homework and are committed to this pathway we understand there are good reasons why regulations exist and aren't seeking to sit outside of them, just trying to find our way through them. Whilst it's often taken a long time to get answers from them (quite understandable as the questions we're asking aren't exactly run-of-the-mill) they've been reasonably helpful about it all.

I'll post a follow-up when we find out one way or another letting everyone know what the official Council response is.

Reclaiming Timber

We've spent almost every weekend for the past 2 years or so at the local tip - there's a shop attached, where they sell on anything that looks vaguely reusable for dirt cheap. This weeks tip finds included two large rolls of barbed wire, an assortment of tools/hinges/other odds and ends, and a collection of hardwood beams that all matched. $40 for the lot was pretty good.

The wood had a lot of nails still in it, but as they were all sort of sticking out a bit we figured we'd just spend an afternoon pulling them out before we do anything with them.

It's a bit tough at first, but once you get the hang of it it's sort of meditative. There's a big sense of triumph when you finally pull out a really tough one. And then you get to play silly games, like who pulls the nail that's bent the most (awarded today to the below offender who was the source of at least 20 minutes frustration), and guessing "what was this all used for originally anyway?" (we suspect someone's deck).

And then there are some nails that are buried deep, and surprise you when they finally get hammered out by being screws after all.

Express delivery of fresh manure

We discovered yesterday, after the shipping container had arrived and we went to check on our veggie patch, that the surprise cows had politely done a cow pat in the middle.

That's a pretty top-notch express delivery service, I reckon. We're going to try and track down who owns said cows and see if they'll just leave them there for a bit, as it's really quite handy.

Shipping containers

Yesterday our long-awaited shipping container arrived. This was quite exciting, as now we can store tools and building materials on site out of the weather rather than having to cart everything back and forth and unload the car a gazillion times.

We arrived a little while before the truck, and were a bit surprised to find about 30 cows and a handful of very small calves on the property.

We suspect they're the same cows that were in the next paddock over a few days ago that looked at us suspiciously when we were digging our veggie patch. We don't mind at all that they're there - in fact we'd been having discussions on and off for weeks about who we would need to talk to to arrange to borrow some cows or sheep. You see, the grass is getting quite long, and whilst my dad very kindly offered to lend us his ride-on lawn mower that seems like such a waste! We could certainly use it to cut down paths or rough driveways, but mow an entire 25 acre block? It'd take a week and way too much fuel to bother with.

Unfortunately, the cows were comfortably settled right on top of the spot we'd left our concrete blocks the other day, which we needed to go under the shipping container. So Kyle had to chase them off down the hill, poor dears.

The truck with our shipping container arrived right on time - apparently there aren't any problems with the 5km or so of unsealed road, though we had extensive phone conversations with the driver beforehand giving directions and making sure he was well aware of the road conditions and the layout of the property.

We talked through where the truck could reasonably get to without sliding or hitting rocks (not very far, it turns out, as the ground gets a little soft as you get further into the property).

I'd had a very amusing (for me at least) conversation with the person in the office that does the ordering for the containers - she kept insisting I had to think carefully about which way they had to load the container onto the truck. We had to, apparently, make sure we'd measured the space we wanted it to go and ensure the doors had space to open. If they didn't, we had to rethink. I said I thought we'd be ok either way, but she was very insistent that it trips up a lot of people. Nice of her to check I guess.

While the container was dangling a little on the crane we rushed around to the corners and put a concrete block under each one. We got these from the tip a few days ago for about $2 (for 10 of them - love the tip!).

Top tip - check that the doors open and close properly before the truck leaves. Our spot isn't entirely level (just a little bit off) and we didn't want it to cause the container to twist and make the doors impossible to open. This would be hard to fix later without the crane.

Of course the first thing we did after the truck left was do a little happy dance and put stuff inside.

It's very dark, though, so we'll need to get some lights with magnets to clip to the walls we think.

The container itself is a 40-foot high-cube - we figured if we were going to the trouble of getting one we may as well get the biggest we could find, as if we went smaller and regretted it it's hard to change. Cost a bit less than $4500 AUD all up, including delivery (about $1400). We went with the mid-level model - they have brand new ones, which were expensive, 'cargo worthy' ones which are old and rusty, then the mid level is basically the cargo worthy ones cleaned up a bit and given a fresh coat of paint. The one bit that wasn't really painted was the wooden flooring, so Kyle will go over that with some very basic paint before we really start to fill it to make sure it lasts for a few years.

I got quotes from every shipping container supplier I could find on the internet (about 10 different companies could deliver to our area). We ended up going through Port Container Services. For price these guys ended up around about the middle of the various quotes we got, but were extremely pleasant to deal with.

A few colleagues of mine have had very negative experiences with getting shipping containers delivered, from various other companies - issues with delivery time confusion, miscommunications, etc. We were very keen for this to go smoothly, as our window for when delivery could occur was very narrow (we wanted it right at the start of our two weeks off work, so we'd be there when it came but could make the most of it while we're on leave). Port were very lovely, everything went exactly as they said it would, and they were very clear about every step of the way. The only thing that was a little different was it showed up with no lock box, but looking back over my quote requests with them I requested a lock box on every other quote I got but theirs, so totally my fault not theirs and it's not really a big deal.

In the spirit of a happy relationship with the council we did check we are allowed a shipping container, and they did confirm this was fine so long as it was 10m from a boundary .

Work begins!

This weekend was the beginning of two weeks off work for both Kyle and I. Two weeks of what we hope will lead to basic infrastructure on the property.

Most of Saturday was spent shopping (heavy duty pants, welding visors, lots of stuff from the tip), during which we resist the feeling that we are haemorrhaging money and try to remind ourselves that this is what we spent so long saving up for anyway.

Sunday was a trip to the site. We knew we weren't going to get very much done on this trip (the first when we actually own the place - we took a brief trip out a day before settlement and did some blackberry clearing, but we figure that doesn't really count). The purpose was really to talk over what happens next and get a better feel for the place. Early on we realised you can't really skimp on the time you spend talking it over before you start - a constant process of revisiting and reclarifying and making sure you both have the same vision in your heads and the same idea of what steps happen when.

So, we explored a bit first...

There are several areas we have started calling wombat villages:

But also lots of smaller holes here and there that are probably echidna's, or various other burrowing crawlies:

There's also one particular tree on the far side of the creek that had three birds nests:

Last time we were at the property the creek had obviously flooded a little while before, up perhaps a metre or two. I've checked the weather data and it looks like it floods that much quite regularly but the catchment area isn't big enough for it ever to go higher.

The water is quite clear, though, and trickles pleasently:

We went further up the hill on the other side of the creek than we have before - technically the property boundary is the creek itself, but when the property was subdivided from the very large cattle station surrounding it the creek was too hard to fence so they put it on the top of the ridge. This means we have an extra 20m or so all along the creek of very steep south facing slope with lots of scrubby trees. So we went all the way up to the ridge to take a look along the fence line.

We found evidence of past bushfires, though obviously from quite a while ago:

There's a quite lovely spot with a bit mossy rock in the shade:

And the inevitable two or three spots with a large thicket of blackberries - this one is clinging around some large rocks, and it looks like some of the wombats have made tunnels through it to get to burrows underneath. Kyle tentatively leaned over the edge to take a look from the top:

At the top of the ridge we looked out over the neighbours property, a little greener than ours as it had obviously been grazed whereas ours has had the grass dry out over winter then regrow so it looks a bit brown from a distance.

Then we stood in the middle of the ridge and looked back up at our place. You can see a bunch of trees at the top, but only 3 of them are actually on our property.

After exploring we had an extensive discussion about what we want to achieve over the next two weeks. We've talked a fair bit about this before, but it's different when you're standing there and can see the scale of it and where things will go.

We bought some stakes with flags on from the tip shop ages ago, thinking they'd be useful one day, so we staked out where our outdoor kitchen will go (this is where we'll build the barrel oven). It will have a roof over the top, but otherwise be quite basic, at least to start with. You can just see the brightly coloured flags in the picture below. We've put it beside one of the trees right at the top of the hill, as we think that's a nice spot for entertaining - you can see pretty much everything from there.

A somewhat less definitely permanent composting toilet block will go a little way over on the other side of the tree.

Then we really got to work. We wanted the first thing we build on the property to be a little veggie patch. Nothing big enough to distract us from the build for the moment, but just something to say "we've started" and to begin as we mean to go on.

We staked it out pretty basic, with a few bits of wood we had lying around from ages ago that weren't going to be used for anything else much. We cleared the grass, and turned over the soil:

The neighbouring cows were fairly suspicious of us at first - they had lots of calves among the herd, and all gathered together staring at us. But eventually they got used to us, dismissing us as just odd humans I suspect.

So, first days work and we have a veggie patch!

A long way to go, but we definitely feel like we've started now!

Settlement Day

We are now officially the new owners of 25 acres of grassy hillside, and a rather sensibly sized mortgage. We're pretty chuffed about this!

And, as a bonus, we found out on Saturday when we went for our pre-settlement inspection that we have several resident echidna's in the immediate area. Here's a close-up of one we passed trundling up the road about 500m from our driveway:

He wasn't feeling very photogenic at the time. We saw another one a little later down by the creek. So now we have confirmed echidna's, wombats, kangaroos, blue-tongued lizards, native bees, and possibly a platypus!

Grey water plans

Reusing our grey water on the garden is a no brainer in our situation. However, for the purposes of being thorough and establishing what assumptions/constraints lead us to that conclusion let's unpack that a bit. For any new dwelling Council's require details of how 'waste' is to be managed on the property. What they usually mean by this is "pay us several hundred $ to connect to the sewers". Since we have no intention of connecting to sewers (they're miles away for a start, but also we'll have composting toilets so why bother?) we are left with the issue of how to manage greywater. Given the effort we'll go to to catch and store water for drinking, it makes sense to be just as strategic about where it goes to next.

We are aware that by and large most grey water systems do not 'save water' overall. That's ok with us, as our goal for the system is the strategic use of what would otherwise be waste in a situation where we have little alternative. Anywhere we go from just letting our waste water trickle down the hillside is a positive.

So, how? Our requirements for any system are generally that it's cheap, complies with regulations (usually the hard part), and can be made and maintained by us with minimal help.

In our initial meeting with the council it was obvious that their opinion of grey water reuse systems was less than positive. Extremely reluctant, I would say, certainly not enthusiastic. Grey water was the one aspect of this build that has been met with the most reluctance, on every other aspect of our project the people we've spoken to in the Council have been hesitantly open-minded. But with grey water, the boom gates really came down. It wasn't an outright 'no', but they were very clear that we'd have to have our documents very much in order to get this through. It does make us wonder what has happened to make this Council so reluctant to deal with grey water systems. We'll probably never know, but we can hope that we'll be part of turning that attitude around.

Firstly, the regulations. In NSW greywater diversion systems can be installed without needing council approval provided they comply with certain conditions which we won't meet. Local council approval is needed for a diversion system from bathroom/laundry - so far as I can tell the same SepticSafe form we'll need for our composting toilet applies to any proposed waste water system, with the section below listing the expected supporting documentation:

And they say Australia is an over-regulated society...

For kitchen waste water the story is a little different. We'll need a treatment system that is accredited. This was where the plot went from thickening to curdling for me. The Australian Standards make it very clear that local governments are not permitted to approve grey water treatment systems that are not accredited by the Health Department. However, I keep finding accounts of people who have managed to get various systems approved by council even when they aren't accredited, either just by that particular State's department or at all. It does seem, though, that for this first house project a DIY grey water treatment system may be one battle too far.

On my search for an accredited system I had a few requirements. Early searches found many systems with pumps and vent fans and all sorts of other contraptions that required electricity to run, this seemed like a completely unnecessary strain on our electrical system. I also found any number of systems that retailed for upwards of $10,000. Since this is almost half of what we hope our entire house will cost to build it, again, seemed an entirely unnecessary waste. Any system we choose will be simple and cheap. The third requirement is for limited maintenance. The various systems on offer that require a registered plumber to service them every 3 months are, to me, completely foolish and to be avoided at all costs. If we can't maintain it ourselves we're not really interested.

After quite a bit of searching I found a useful table that confirmed a lot of what I'd read already - that two particular models (EcoDesign's Greywater Reuse System, and EcoFlow's Nature Clear GWS10) fit the brief in being on the cheaper side, needing no electricity and limited maintenance, and had the added bonus of producing compost periodically. Seemed perfect, except they're both only accredited in Qld and 'parts of NSW'. We'll try our luck, I think.

One final note: We are aware we are designing a system that will not be able to handle substantial contamination with human waste. We also know we want kids somewhere in our future. This will inevitably lead us to a choice, down the track, about nappies that has a bit more weight to it than the convenience vs environment dichotomy that plagues most of our friends. Though a quick search found these, which would appear to solve the problem.