Tag Archives: Rainwater collection

Rainwater Harvesting Education, Residential Rainwater Collection

An Early and Long Pollen Season

pollenPollen season is just around the corner for us here in Washington State. With the warmer than normal temperatures, we will most likely see an early and long pollen season.

Pollen is a nemesis of rainwater collection and needs to be controlled. Without control, pollen can easily foul our stored water.

As pollen accumulates in cisterns in the spring and summer months, it starts to decay and along with that decay – odor is the result. Simple techniques should be applied in order to keep our stored water “sweet”.

Gutter screens should be cleaned often, as pollen accumulates on the screens themselves with the rain washing the pollen into the gutters and into the cisterns.

Vortex filters screen should be periodically inspected and cleaned as needed. If you do not have a vortex filter, I highly recommend having one installed.

If you use screen baskets in a sump box or the cistern itself, a layer of cheesecloth will catch the pollen before it enters the tank. The cheesecloth should be inspected frequently and replaced as needed.

Keep your stored water clean and odor free with a little extra maintenance during this pollen season. You will be glad you did.

A false color electron microscope scan of pollen. Credit: Dartmouth College/Charles Daghlian

Rainwater Catchment

Rainwater Collection is a Simple Source for Decentralized Water

decentralized waterRainwater collection, a simple source for decentralized water, can be the answer to our aging, centralized water systems. With expected increased demand from high density development and the high cost of upgrading infrastructure to meet those demands, water will become the new commodity. Much has been discussed about privatization of water districts in order to fund these expenses, turning these districts into “for profit” businesses.  Large corporations such as Nestlé are actively pursuing this new business model.

What effect will privatization and profit generating water companies have on water supplies? Will Wall Street play a part in the trading, much like oil or any other commodity? What then will happen to the average consumer? What level will supply and demand hold on the price and pricing of water?

Rainwater collection and use can play an important role in not only supply, but potentially help keep costs down for the consumer and water districts. Simple water conservation, along with  collection can decrease supply and demand by supplementing centralized water. A rainwater collection system used only for toilet flushing and laundry facilities can save the average home 50% of its use. Commercial buildings can supply their irrigation and toilet flushing needs with rainwater collection while saving thousands of cubic yards of centralized water consumption.

The supply and demand of centralized water can be mitigated with rainwater collection on a large scale by small supplementary rainwater collection systems for commercial and residential use.

Rainwater Catchment

How Much is Water (Conservation) Worth?

How Much is Water WorthHow much is water worth?

The question in itself is a huge discussion among corporate leaders and governmental agencies throughout the world. With increased demands of growing populations, droughts which plague many regions globally, and the lack of conservation, many are asking “how do we protect a common resource throughout the world, while providing a necessity of life for all of its inhabitants?” According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “We have a genuine, burgeoning, boundary – crossing crisis over water.” PepsiCo. CEO Indra Nooyi says “The world water crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our age.”

Companies are concerned as farmland suffers and the demand for water mounts. What is the solution? According to Fortune Magazine, “Some say: make people pay more for the most precious commodity on earth. “When water has no value, even low cost technology will never get implemented on a large scale.”  Furthermore, the article deems that water is so inexpensive that there is no incentive for conservation. Water needed for drinking, cooking, farming and basic life supporting necessities needs to be available to all, while there should be limits on non-essential use of water with cost increases to offset conservation practices and technologies.

The city of San Diego, which has experienced a drought not seen before in our lifetime, is investing money in large scale desalinization systems, paid for, in part, by a tiered water pricing system. While many think this to be controversial, the need is there, without some sort of rethinking how we manage our water supplies, there will be little water to manage.

While rainwater collection is not going to be the final answer to water conservation, it certainly is a simple step that can be adopted relatively inexpensively, and with positive results on a small scale. Think about the money that can be saved by our municipal water districts which can then be redirected to other methods of supplying water. If the city of San Diego, as well as other cities, would realize the value of water and encourage rainwater collection on a larger scale, we could conserve over half the amount of water being wasted for non-essential use.