Monthly Archives: March 2015

Rainwater Harvesting Education, Residential Rainwater Collection

An Early and Long Pollen Season


Close-up of a spiky, spherical virus particle.Pollen season is just around the corner for us here in Washington State. With the warmer than normal temperatures, we will most likely see an early and long pollen season.

Pollen is anemesis of rainwater collection and needs to be controlled. Without control, pollen can easily foul our stored water.

As pollen accumulates in cisterns in the spring and summer months, it starts to decay and along with that decay – odor is the result. Simple techniques should be applied in order to keep our stored water “sweet”.

Gutter screens should be cleaned often, as pollen accumulates on the screens themselves with the rain washing the pollen into the gutters and into the cisterns.

Vortex filters screen should be periodically inspected and cleaned as needed. If you do not have a vortex filter, I highly recommend having one installed.

If you use screen baskets in a sump box or the cistern itself, a layer of cheesecloth will catch the pollen before it enters the tank. The cheesecloth should be inspected frequently and replaced as needed.

Keep your stored water clean and odor free witha little extra maintenance during this pollen season. You will be glad you did.

A false color electron microscope scan of pollen. Credit: Dartmouth College/Charles Daghlian

Professional Development

Rainwater Harvesting Development


Colorful dry erase markers and an eraser on a whiteboard shelf.If you are an interested individual or a professional seeking educational development courses and workshops on rainwater harvesting for residential, commercial, potable or non-potable systems, you should visit ARCSA’s website to sign up for a course or webinar.For more information about ARCSA’s professional development programs and workshops, click here.

Rainwater Systems is the Northwest Regional representative for the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA).

ARCSA’smission is to promote sustainable rainwater harvesting practices to help solve potable, non-potable, stormwater and energy challenges throughout the world. which, of course, aligns with RainBank’s core values. We hope you’ll visit ARCSA and consider becoming a member. You can sign up for ARCSA’s newsletter here.

Infrastructure, Rainwater Catchment

Making Smart Choices About Water Use


Diagram showing rainwater collection from a roof into a storage tank.

Rainwater collection is growing inpopularity in the United States, including here in the Seattle area. Many commercial and residential new construction projects are discovering that rainwater collection can save costs on complying withthe mandated GSI (greenstorm waterinfrastructure) of infiltration on site while saving water use and energy at the same time.

Treatingwater for potable standards is not energyefficient formunicipal water districts. Even though water is cheap for the consumer, it doesrequire high costs to maintain this levelof quality to potable standards. Thereason the costs are low to the consumer is because of the large amounts of water being sold to manufacturing and farming. On a large scale, reducing the energy needed by using untreated water for toilet flushing and laundry facilities could reduce the costs of water from these water districts. Imagine the reduction of energy saved if all commercial new construction implemented RWC for this use only.

Pie chart of indoor water use in typical single-family homes without conservation.Based on thischart from the American Water Works Association (AWWA) toilets make up28% of residential water consumption without conservation and laundry 21%. The use of highefficiency toilets, washing machines and low flow devices will reduce the amounts even more. A simple rainwater collection system for toilet and laundry will reduce household demand ofmunicipal water by 49%. Imagine the savings on a larger scale forenergy,storm water runoff, depletion of ouraquifers, and demands on a centralized water system.

Every drop of water is important and we can make smart choices about where every drop goes.