All posts by RainBankAdmin

Infrastructure, Sustainability

Going from Gray to Green

graywaterIn one northern California community, an area ravaged by a four year drought, residents are watering their lawns using gray water – water that has been recycled.

The community of El Dorado Hills has one of the oldest water recycling programs in the state – reusing water for any purpose that doesn’t require a potable standard.

‘”All your shower water, all your toilet water, dishwater, everything that goes down your sinks, comes to this facility and we clean it up,” El Dorado Wastewater Treatment Plant Supervisor of Operations Alan Planje said.

A bonus is that customers save about 35% on their water bills. But another extremely important benefit comes from the fact that the community saves 4.5 million gallons of drinking water per day, by not wasting it on watering lawns.

“It is part of the culture, when homes are built in El Dorado Hills, they come with plumbing for recycled water,” El Dorado Irrigation District Manger of Wastewater/Recycled Water Margaret Washko said.

Dual plumbing systems are built into each home in the community, one for potable water and a purple pipe system for the gray water to water lawns and even the golf course.

To read and hear more about this story, visit http://www.news10.net/story/news/local/eldorado-hills/2015/07/15/el-dorado-hills-keeps-green-lawns-with-gray-water/30165413/

Photo credit: El Dorado Irrigation District

Rainwater Catchment, Rainwater Harvesting Education

ARCSA Leadership’s Sound Business Practices

waves-768777_640As we’ve shared in the past, the mission of The American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) is to promote sustainable rainwater harvesting practices to help solve potable, non-potable, stormwater and energy challenges throughout the world.

Let’s also congratulate ARCSA for its sound business practices and for having attained the GuideStar Exchange Gold participation level, a testament to the organization’s leadership. This level demonstrates ARCSA’s deep commitment to transparency and accountability.

“Through the national and international work of ARCSA’s Board of Directors and its members, representing government, academia, trade groups, and industry, ARCSA is helping to transform a local and renewable water resource into a global solution for water challenges.  This transformation is helping to create jobs, to boost local economies, to improve water quality of receiving waters, and to reduce the dependence on strained municipal clean water supplies.”

You can learn more about ARCSA and rainwater collection by visiting its FAQ page.

ARCSA is engaged in many initiatives for 2015, including its popular annual conference, now in its 11th year, to be held in November in Long Beach CA. This year’s theme is “Beyond The Garden”,  and will offer valuable information about residential and commercial rainwater collection ideas, opportunities, and initiatives – for potable and non potable applications.

Residential Rainwater Collection, Sustainability

Who Owns the Clouds?

storm-730653_640Scenario: you finally come to the awareness that collecting rainwater is a good way to conserve well or city water and a sustainable way to water your garden. So, you set up a barrel to capture rain for use in plant watering. Great idea – right? Wrong. If you live in Colorado, where someone else owns the clouds, you might just be an outlaw!

An excerpt from a New York Times article, A Thirsty Colorado Is Battling Over Who Owns Raindrops, states: “When Jason Story bought an old soy sauce barrel to collect the rain dripping from his downspout, he figured he had found an environmentally friendly way to water his garden’s beets and spinach. But under the quirks of Western water rules, where raindrops are claimed even as they tumble from the sky, he became a water outlaw.”

While water supply has always been limited in the Western US, it’s an even more precious commodity now, as marathon drought has plagued the region for years.

Sustainability has become a wide-reaching message, as individuals and businesses seek ways to conserve water – for without it, we couldn’t survive. However, in Colorado, collecting rain in a barrel, for your own use, is pretty much illegal due to ancient laws that create a system of water rights – meaning it’s not yours – you can’t have it – even if it falls from the clouds onto your own property, because someone else has already claimed it.

Some lawmakers saw this as an antiquated rule and, in the spring of 2015 attempted to make a change, allowing homeowners to collect rainwater on their own properties. But, some with their own personal and commercial interests, stepped in to squash it – one legislator categorized personal rainwater collection as “stealing”.

So far, the law, which could generate fines of up to $500 to an individual, has been largely unenforced. The question is, as rainwater collection becomes more popular in the mainstream, what will happen if more folks in Colorado choose to harvest rain?