ReapTheChaos: I often wonder where people think their sewer goes.  Once it''s processed by your local sewer treatment plant, it's dumped into a local lake or river, which will eventually makes it's way into the water treatment plant either in your town or the next one down river and be turned into drinking water.  /the circle of pee.

This.  If your muni gets its water from a river, there is pee in it.  Either it is from the bears, elk, birds and other critters that do their business in the water, or it is from the sewage treatment discharge pipe that is upstream from your muni's intake pipe.


One thing that really needs to be written into the building code for new houses is having toilets and landscape irrigation be on their own separate line to the street.  That way when the muni installs purple pipes in the street, you don't have to tear the house or driveway up. 

I'm actually looking at buying a lot that is on a well and has a septic system.  One of the things I'll probably end up doing is having the drains from the showers, bathtubs and roof gutters run into a tank for non-potable water use.  The county gives a credit for doing it and it extends the life of your septic drain field.