Rainwater Catchment, Residential Rainwater Collection

What Weather Pattern Will Seattle See This Winter?


A powerful ocean wave curling and crashing.What type of weather pattern can we expect in the Seattle area this winter?

According to the latest NOAA forecast,”For more than a year now we have been experiencing a ‘La Nada’ weather pattern, with ‘El Niño’ todevelop toward the end of the year.” Warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean will trend toward a warm and dry fall and winter across the Pacific Northwest while sending the jet stream farther to the South bringing California much needed wetter weather. This means less snow pack and less lowland rain for the Seattle area.

However the NOAA stats suggest we are not in the El Niño pattern yet, with .46″ of rainfall this last Saturday and a weekly total of 2.18″ this past week. A monthly total so far of 2.90″ is lessthan the average monthly total for October of 3.24″.

A 2,000 sq ft home in Seattlecould have collected 3,613.4 gallons ofwater from that 2.90″. With an average rainfall of 36″ that same home could collect almost 45,000 gallons. With approximately 12,000 gallons of storage, that home would have a budget of 3,750 gallon average monthly use and enough water stored to supply their summer demand.

Seattle is one of the best suited areas for rainwater catchment regardless ofclimatic weather patterns weface.

Rainwater Catchment, Residential Rainwater Collection

Contaminated Water At Home


Close-up of a worn, metallic fountain pen nib on a black surface.Do you think contaminated water only existsin developing countries?

The other day, there was a Boil Your Water Advisory in Washington State. According to KIRO News,”About800 residents in Wauna on the Key Peninsulawere affected when E. coli was detected in their water supply.” The water system in Wauna is a community well system.The contamination was found during a routine monthly test, but the source of the contamination has yet to be determined.

E. coli has been recently detected in the Mount Baker area. The water system serves about 220 homes. One child died and 2 others got sick in Lincoln County, Oregon last week. In addition, Mercer Island City water systemhad a suspected outbreak as well. Local restaurants were affected and lost profits due to the scare. Earlier this year dead birds were found in a Portland city reservoir.

There have been 26 contaminations this year – and 25 last year as well.These boil alerts are becoming increasingly more common throughout our country.

Why is this happening? Aging infrastructure can partly beattributed to the cause. With increased population density and larger demands on our centralized water and sewer districts, rainwater collection and decentralized water systems may be the better answer for Seattle. A small urban rainwater collection system for residential use is easy to maintain and has less potential of contamination if installed and properly maintained.

Rainwater Catchment

Millions of People Have No Access to Clean Drinking Water


Close-up of a worn, metallic fountain pen nib on a black surface.Throughout the world, more than 780 million people have no access to clean drinking water.

Here in the United States, we use filtered, disinfected water to flush our toilets, water our lawns, and wash our cars. For most NGOs, the focus for clean drinking water is shallow water wells. The problem, in many regions of the world, is that naturally occurring arsenic is found in these wells; arsenic is harmful to bone development.While fluorides are added in trace amounts to most public water supplies in America, high levels offluorides can be foundin shallow water wells throughout the globe andcan cause dental decay. However, the mostcommon threatto drinking waterglobally is cholera. According to the World Wide Health Organization, thereare 3 to 5 million cholera cases with 100,000 to 120,000 deaths per year. It is considered to be endemic in many countries.

Group of people standing in front of large water storage tanks outside a building.Simple techniques of rainwater collection and natural solar water disinfection can saves lives in developing countries. Rainwater collected from the roof and screened before storage comes in no contact with sewer materials or human feces, leaving only bacterial contaminants to be disinfected. This can be achieved as simplyas filling a 1litter, clear bottle with rainwaterand leaving it in direct sunlight for approximately 4 hours or 8 hours in overcast conditions.

RainBank’s president is a founding director of Bank on Rain and traveled to Sierra Leone in 2012 and 2013 to teach rainwater catchment and solar disinfection.

Rainwater Systems