Our Mojave Desert is roughly the size of the Dominican Republic. These same streets also sit above a pitifully inadequate groundwater supply. Locating the small pockets of trapped rainwater can be a crap-shoot and the flow rate and water quality often are disappointing. The flow rate from the well can be low and the salt content too high for many of the crops that thrive here, avocados, for instance. Literally all of the water we use for drinking, flushing, cleaning and irrigation is piped in, at great expense, from the Colorado and Sacramento rivers.
Recycled water is used solely for landscape irrigation.
When recycled from households, this water is termed gray water. When recycled from sewage treatment plants, this water is called reclaimed water. Gray water at home Gray water systems for homes represent a small, but important, aspect of water recycling. In a typical gray water system, water is diverted from sinks, bathtubs and laundry rooms into a holding tank and then used in lieu of drinking water to nourish landscape. Toilet water never is used.