Category Archives: Infrastructure

Infrastructure, Sustainability

More Cuts to Seattle Water Usage

Seattle area consumers were asked to cut water usage another 10% after a 25% voluntary reduction was met last month.

According to the Seattle Times, “If conditions worsen, officials for each water system will decide whether to move to a third stage of shortage planning: requiring customers to cut their water use.”  

RainBank customers have benefitted from this past weekend’s rainfall by collecting the rain. A RainBank customer who had a 15,000 gallon irrigation system installed 4 years ago just wrote an email to us saying he just ran out of water last week. With a 3,000 sq. ft. roof and a 2″ rainfall over the weekend, this consumer and his family are right back to having 3,738 gallons – just like that.  A new customer in Bellevue with 2,000 sq. ft. of roof just collected his first 2,492 gallons from this weekend’s rainfall and is on the way to filling a 12,000 gallon storage tank that will be used for toilet flushing, laundry facility, and irrigation.

Customers on Vashon Island have reported that their tanks were just about empty and now they have enough water for another month. Customers all over the Puget Sound region who have had rainwater collection systems installed by RainBank Rainwater Systems are “singing in the rain”.

Whether you want rainwater collection for irrigation, toilet flushing, laundry facility, wash down, or whole household potable use, there is a system design that will fit your needs. RainBank Rainwater Systems has installed more rainwater storage systems than any other in Washington State. With 15 years’ experience, RainBank has the expertise to get the job done right. RainBank’s personnel are ARCSA accredited, which requires ongoing, continuing education. RainBank is a progressive, full service company offering design, construction, and maintenance of the systems we install.

The outlook for next summer is much the same as this summer. With population growth, failing infrastructure, and more demand on our local water supplies, you can count on shortages again. Wildfires will pose a threat again next summer in Eastern Washington. Being ready to meet these challenges with stored water may just save your home.

RainBank Rainwater Systems builds CorGal steel water tanks in all sizes for residential and commercial applications. RainBank also installs above ground and below ground poly water tanks for potable and non potable use. Some customers have rainwater collection as their sole source of water including the first sole source for a single family residence in Skagit County.

Contact us, or give us a call at 360-298-4719. We will help meet your water storage needs.

Infrastructure, Sustainability

Should Drought Stricken Families be Thankful for a Tankful?

droughtExtreme drought, dry wells, wildfires, and lost jobs are forcing us to take a careful look at our water usage priorities.

If we don’t preserve water, what will happen to our children?

This is an important question asked by a central California man whose well has run dry and now must rely on water delivered by the county to a tank that is shared by 2 families. Each delivery supplies about 1 week’s worth of water.

I encourage you to watch this video and consider the questions: What’s more important – golf or families?  Is all water use created equal?

Drought Talk: Is All Water Use Created Equal?

Is a class war lurking behind the drought?

Posted by AJ+ on Thursday, August 20, 2015

Environment, Infrastructure

Heavy Metals Spill into Colorado River

1 Comment
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP)
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP)

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally dumped 1 million gallons of heavy metals from an inactive mine into the Cement Creek in Colorado. A tributary of the Animas River, the sludge, which turned the water an eerie orange color, could be seen snaking toward New Mexico on Wednesday.

The Denver Post reports EPA workers caused the spill while they were investigating acid discharge from Gold King and three other mines in the area. The paper also quotes Dave Ostrander, the EPA’s regional director of emergency preparedness assessment and response, as saying, “We are very sorry for what happened. This is a huge tragedy. It’s hard being on the other side of this. Typically we respond to emergencies; we don’t cause them. … It’s something we sincerely regret.”

According to the NY Times, “E.P.A. officials confirmed the leak contained heavy metals, including lead and arsenic, but said it was too early to know whether there was a health risk to humans or animals. The river was closed for recreational and other uses, but officials said water sources should be safe.”

Now this writer is no expert, but it’s difficult to imagine that wastewater in the river will not affect the river’s eco-system. Further questions arise as to how will this tragedy impact the plants, fish and wildlife that depend on the river to survive?

The EPA is evaluating the human health risk, but it is reported that at least two of the heavy metals in this spill can be “lethal for humans in long-term exposure. Arsenic at high levels can cause blindness, paralysis and cancer. Lead poisoning can create muscle and vision problems for adults, harm development in fetuses and lead to kidney disease, developmental problems and sometimes death in children”.

This is serious stuff. Residents along the river are being asked to “minimize water usage”.  At least seven water utilities shut down their intake valves ahead of the plume to keep it out of their systems and farmers also closed the gates on their irrigation ditches to protect crops.

With news of toxic algae stretching from California to Alaska, fracking chemicals contaminating wells in Pennsylvania and now heavy metals dumped into the Animas in Colorado, just how safe are our water supplies?