Rainwater for Vehicle Washdown

A five-year old rainwater harvesting system built for the city of Guelph, Ontario, Canada  received an award for saving enough drinking water to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools – by using captured rain for vehicle washdown.

The Water’s Next national awards program honors the achievements and ideas of individuals and companies that successfully work to change water in Canada.

Award categories include:

Business Leader: Person in the private sector that has demonstrated significant leadership and innovation in the water sector.

Academic Leader: Person in the academic sector that has demonstrated significant leadership, innovation, and scientific excellence in the water sector.

Non-Government Leader: Person in the non-government sector that has demonstrated significant leadership, innovation, and influence in the water sector.

Government (includes municipalities, agencies, watershed authorities, and First Nations government) Person in the public sector that has demonstrated significant leadership, innovation, and influence in the public sector, towards the benefit of Canada’s water resources.

Young Professionals: Individual under the age of 30 working in the water sector who has demonstrated exemplary leadership, innovation, and growth potential.

An additional benefit of using rainwater to clean city buses is that the captured rainwater is softer than groundwater, therefore, less cleaning products are needed, which saves money for the city.

“We rely on a groundwater supply in Guelph, and we need to be smart about how we use water—at home, at work and at our City facilities,” said Emily Stahl, manager of technical services for the City’s Water Services department. “It makes sense to match the water supply provided with the use, and naturally soft rainwater is better for washing buses, and cars at home too.”

Click here to read more about Guelph’s water advocacy award.

RainBank designs and installs systems for potable and non-potable usage, including vehicle washdown, laundry and toilet facilities.

Contact us today to discuss a system for your home or business.

Ken Blair
A rainwater collection systems designer and consultant, Ken has designed and installed residential and commercial systems, primarily in the northwest United States for more than 10 years and, in 2014, began consulting and managing builds in other states. Ken is an accredited ARCSA Professional Designer / Installer and Life Member, the Northwest Regional ARCSA representative and advisor to its education committee and is available to speak about Rainwater Collection Systems design and builds.

Ken is a United States Navy veteran, having served on active duty during the Vietnam War era.

A career entrepreneur, Ken created a new business focus with a commercial dive company in Hawaii in the mid 1980′s to respond to and clean up oil spills, oil spill equipment training, service and maintenance for the oil co-op service industry. Ken is passionate about having a positive impact on the environment and is also a founding director of BANK-ON-RAIN (2011-2014), whose mission is to create grassroots solutions for rainwater collection for consumption and agriculture in developing areas of the planet.