Residential greywater systems are now legal in California, and most modest residential installations don’t ever require a permit. But exactly how the changed rules are being implemented remains a little murky.

Sonoma County PRMD deputy director Duane Starnes explains why diverting laundry water outflow to a greywater reservoir also requires some additional changes to the household’s existing plumbing, such as the diversion valve shown at right.

Art Ludwig, a long-time advocate for legalizing greywater systems, says the state’s new rules allowing them carry an almost symbolic significance that extends well beyond mere plumbing.

Ludwig's Oasis Design website has detailed and illustrated instructions on how to install a "laundry to landscape" greywater system.

The Bay Area's Greywater Guerrillas are another online resource.

Expanding the educational opportunities for children in poor, rural parts of Nicaragua and El Salvador is the focus of a low profile Sonoma-based non-profit.

Seeds of Learning was started 18 years ago by two Sonoma County men, Todd Evans and Patrick Rickon, based on their own experiences in Central America.

Although they are no longer involved in running the daily operations of the organization, Executive Director Annie Bacon says both men continue to actively participate in the group’s international projects.

The Seeds of Learning volunteers have been warmly, if somewhat quizzically welcomed by the people in Nicaragua and El Salvador, Bacon says, with little regard for the region’s difficult history with the United States government.

Equador

Sutter Health proposes building a new, smaller hospital at the Wells Fargo Center, north of Santa Rosa, to replace the old medical campus on Chanate Road. But critics, including rival hospitals, worry that the new facility will be too small.

 The planned $176 million, 70 bed hospital would have barely half the 135 beds at the current Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, still known to long-time locals as Community Hospitlal (right). Such downsizing could rupture the delicate  balance among local hospitals regarding who cares for the poor and uninsured patients in the area, says Dr.Gary Greensweig, Director of Medicine for St. Josephs' Healthcare of Sonoma County. He notes that the existing Sutter facilites now provide about 30% of that car, and their Health Care Access Agreeement with the county, the contract that Sutter accepted when they first came to Sonoma County, stipulates that the same level of care be maintained.

Sutter has been weighing the construction of a new hospital on the grounds of the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts for several years now. The current proposal would be situated on the northwest corner of the property, as shown in the site map below. With a specific project under consideration, Sutter spokeswoman Lisa Amador says they are already well into the process of drafting the Environmental Impart Report that the project will eventually require.

 Supervisor Shirlee Zane, the only member of the board to give an indication of her leanings on the proposal, appeared cautiously supportive. She also raised the spectre of Sutter following through on their earlier bid to leave the county altogether if their project is not approved.

YouthBuild, an education and job training program for young people in the Santa Rosa area, is going green.

Many of the recent YouthBuild graduates like to return and visit the current class, and Program Director Casey McChesney welcomes them as walking role models for the youth who are developing their own ideas of what success could represent for them.

You can hear a previous North Bay Report about YouthBuild from December 2008 here.