Category Archives: Rainwater Catchment

Rainwater Catchment, Sustainability

Do Washington Water Districts Take Drought Conditions Seriously?

seattle-870282_640Even with the recent rains, drought conditions still persist with water shortages in Western and Eastern Washington.

Saving Water Partnership is a group of local water utilities including Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett Public Utilities, that has been campaigning through television public service announcements, asking customers to “reduce shower times, only do full loads of laundry and dishwashing and fix leaky faucets”. Efforts have reduced water consumption an average of 14%.

Seattle Public Utilities offers rebates in limited areas of Seattle for rain gardens and small rainwater collection irrigation systems through the RainWise program. City of Tacoma offers rebates up to $2,000 to eligible homeowners in two water districts. Everett Public Utilities offers training workshops on rain gardens and rain barrels.

Other cities throughout the country are taking water conservation to the next level.

Saint Paul’s Lowertown Regional Ballpark (currently under construction to be home to the St. Paul Saints) will harvest rainwater for indoor use—Minnesota’s first such municipal project. (See video)

RainBank Rainwater Systems shared information about a rainwater pilot project in Albuquerque New Mexico that now is underway.

The city of San Marcos Public Works Department has been offering up to $5,000 for installations of rainwater collection systems to homeowners and commercial properties as much as $20,000

King County Health Department allows rainwater collection for potable use. Snohomish and Pierce counties do not. The Saving Water Partnership web site says nothing about rainwater collection. It’s time for these water districts to take water shortages seriously and follow examples of other progressive cities that are recognizing the value of investing in rainwater collection and begin promoting how to prevent future water shortages.

Potable, Rainwater Catchment, Sustainability

Community Rainwater Harvesting

Community rainwater harvestingBhagwati Agrawal has been named a 2015 Top 10 CNN Hero. Voting for CNN Hero of the Year takes place through Sunday, November 15. All of this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored during, “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” Sunday, December 6, on the global networks on CNN.

When he lost his corporate job, Mr. Agrawal decided he wanted to focus his energy on creating a solution to his homeland’s drinking water crisis. Fresh water was so scarce in his community, it needed to be trucked in.

Click to watch a video showing  how his non profit organization, Sustainable Innovations, built a community rainwater harvesting system which captures rain from rooftops during India’s monsoon season, providing safe, clean drinking water to six villages with more than 10,000 people in India’s driest area.

“In many parts of the world, you never think of water. In other parts, you think of water day and night,” said Agrawal, 70. “My mission is to end water scarcity, not only in India, but globally.”

The rainwater collection system is called Aakash Ganga — Hindi for “River from the Sky” – and consists of a network of rooftops, gutters, pipes and underground reservoirs that collect and store monsoon rains, which fall from July to September. By saving this rainwater, 6 villages have potable water all year long.

Read more at CNN

Environment, Rainwater Catchment

Welcome to Washington’s Rainy Season

Seattle Downtown After RainOctober 1 is the official start of the rainy season in Washington State and even though annual rainfall met expectations, another dry, warm winter is predicted for the region. This means that the snowpack – the summer rain bank (see what I did there?) will be missing in action for another year.

According to the Department of Ecology’s drought page, “despite recent rains and some boost for stream flows, extreme drought still covers two-thirds of Washington state.”

Now would be a good time to come up with a personal drought contingency plan, since Mother Nature isn’t going to provide relief any time soon. Washington state’s drought plan, released in 1992, refers to fish and timber harvesting, but makes no mention of rain harvesting.

When planning a rainwater collection system, you must account for the amount and intensity of the average rainfall in your area. That information is usually available at the county level, but can also be captured via National Oceanographic and Atmospheric, Administration (NOAA) and the National Climatic Data Center.

For a small system, you can head to your local hardware store, purchase a rain barrel, hook it up and, at the very least, can collect water for your garden.

For a whole house, or commercial system, work with a pro that knows how to design and install the most thoughtful system, which is customized to your specific needs. Ask questions; provide information about your roof size and materials, family size, whether you want to capture water for drinking, irrigation or laundry, etc.

When you work with an accredited professional rainwater harvesting installer and designer, the outcome will be a system to meet your water needs for years to come – and it will add value to your home or business.