Tag Archives: drought

Rainwater Harvesting Education

Washington State Should Offer Education on Rainwater Collection & Conservation Methods

Is it too controversial to say that Washington State has the opportunity to show others how to plan for drought?

girl in rainCalifornia failed to see the possible long term effects of an extended drought and now water supplies at current levels are not sustainable, even with a 25% reduction in usage. It is pretty obvious that California and other states should have taken conservation measures more seriously and swiftly early on. Simply hoping for rain with little emergency declarations until a drought becomes a crises, is not the solution. Conservation measures before the crisis becomes too big is the possibility here for Washington.

With the declaration of a drought emergency, Governor Inslee has asked the legislature for $9.5 million in drought relief funding.

According to the Department of Ecology May 2015:

Ecology has proposed using the drought relief money in the following ways:

  • $3.896 million for public agricultural irrigation projects water leasing and/ or acquisition.
  • $2 million to municipal water utilities for emergency drought funding.
  • $1.187 million to WDFW for salmon and trout protection.
  • $2.2 million for Yakima emergency well pumping mitigation.
  • $187,000 to hire temporary state staff to respond to the drought emergency.
  • $100,000 Stream Flow Monitoring.
  • $25,000 Conservation Education.

Unfortunately this response is “putting out the fire” but what about future droughts? We could keep drilling and hoping for rain, or we could be proactive by allocating more than $25,000 in education. A good place to start would be education of our legislature on rainwater collection and how our state could encourage rainwater collection and known conservation methods. Our legislature could listen to industry leaders from the national association (ARCSA) American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association, on the benefits of rainwater collection. Enact legislation that can reduce residential and commercial demands of our centralized water systems. Offer incentive programs that have some teeth, and that really can make a difference.

Education at the state government level about rainwater collection and conservation methods that the state could enact would be money well spent for the future.

Rainwater Catchment, Rainwater Harvesting Education

Washington State Drought Emergency

Governor InsleeOn May 15, Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency.

In his announcement, Governor Inslee states, “We’re really starting to feel the pain from this snowpack drought. Impacts are already severe in several areas of the state. Difficult decisions are being made about what crops get priority water and how best to save fish.”

With the snowpack at 16% of normal, the runoff is expected to be the lowest in 64 years. The Department of Ecology has requested 9.5 million in drought relief. Much of the drought relief will be spent on agriculture and department of fish and wildlife in the way of emergency drought applications for farmers and funding action now for fish passage.

A small amount of emergency relief will through conservation education. To little to late? While the response from the Governor’s office has been timely for the current drought, RainBank Rainwater Systems president Ken Blair, along with the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) have been providing education about water conservation for years.

“We have experienced pretty much normal rainfall amounts this year, it is the lack of snowpack that will be the issue this summer”, explains Blair. Storage and use of roof runoff helps reduce the demand on our local reservoirs and aquifers 100 % of the time, leaving more available water during dry periods. With the use of rainwater collection, both for residential and commercial application, demand is lowered and storage is increased. This does not do much for irrigation in agriculture but it does supplement domestic use and enhances in stream flow rates. A simple rainwater collection system can yield enough water from the roof to supplement or fully support a residence with its water demand. Commercial application can be used for non potable usage and mitigate much of the building’s water demand.

RainBank Rainwater Systems applauds Governor Inslee in being proactive in his delegation of this water emergency, but encourages more education in conservation methods for future water shortages. Education and implementation will help assure water for the future.

Rainwater Catchment, Rainwater Harvesting Education

It’s Time to Get Serious About How We Choose to Use Water

Watering-76e7f031364af9f0a9a0e8545ae150d3The lingering and controversial California drought has unearthed some interesting views about how we prioritize how we use water. What if there was a way to conserve drinking water and STILL have enough to water our drought thirsty lawns or wash laundry – or to clean  trucks in a commercial facility?

The time has come to get serious about how we choose to use water!

Do you know that only one inch of rain can supply thousands of gallons of water for non-drinking uses?  Think in terms of lawn watering, toilet facilities and laundry for commercial and residential applications. The time has come to get serious about how we choose to use water; the reality is (especially in California) that there may not be enough for drinking one day – and sooner than you might think.

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has released a video that quickly points out the benefits to capturing rain water for use in irrigation.  Take a look at the video below and consider adding rainwater collection to your next residential or commercial project.