Tag Archives: rural rainwater collection

Residential Rainwater Collection

Rainwater Collection in Baring, Outside of Seattle

Baring WAYou don’t get much more rural in King County than Baring, WA. With no community water available, being concerned with the impact of drilling a well, and the desire to have a clean, safe reliable source of water, RainBank’s customer chose rainwater collection for their sole source of water for their remodel.

The job had its challenges, but in the end, this compact 885 square foot cabin is able to collect enough water for whole house, potable demand. Historically, this area’s annual rainfall has been 42.5″ allowing for 23,432 gallons to be collected.

The 9′ wide, 20,000 lb. GVWR, wooden suspension bridge allowed only one tank at a time for crossing. Delivery of start up water due to a summer install required two water trucks to be used, one on each side of the bridge. One truck brought water from Skykomish and transferred water across the bridge to the other, to be delivered to the cisterns to stay below the weight restriction of the bridge. The bridge’s weight restrictions allowed only for a small excavator to be brought across for excavation for tank placement. The home was so close to the Skykomish river, rocks larger than the excavator were encountered and needed to be navigated around for tank location. Our excavation contractor was awesome!

The filtration and pump room below the house was limited in size for the filtration train and, with winter temperatures well below freezing, along with limitations of excavation, it was decided that the sump tank needed to be placed in the small room as well. (See slides of job below.)

All of these concerns were recognized early on in the project by RainBank’s team and challenges were met, resulting in a very clean 10,000-gallon install. Whole house, potable use from rainwater collection will now provide this cabin with safe, clean, reliable water for years to come with no negative impact on the environment.

“Job well done guys” exclaims Ken Blair to his crew.

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Rainwater Catchment, Residential Rainwater Collection

How To Benefit from Rainwater Collection in a Rural Area

HOW TO BENEFIT FROM RAINWATER COLLECTION IN A RURAL AREAMany King County rural homeowners and farms are finding that rainwater collection as supplementary to their wells or community water systems is helpful in limiting overuse of their water supply.

If you are in a water district or community water association, there are cost increases when you reach a certain level of use. Those who are on a lower producing well may find that supplementation maybe the answer for lower water volume or even salt water intrusion. Adding a rainwater collection system can lessen the demand on both.

With more space than an urban building lot, larger storage can be the answer to your water needs. Large grain bin, steel tanks can store as much water as you may need. It is common for rural applications to have 10,000 to 50,000 gallons or more of storage. Irrigation, livestock watering, equipment wash down and even whole house use can be achieved with rainwater collection.

Rainwater starts off relatively cleaner than surface water. With simple filtration, non potable applications can be the answer to digging a new or additional wells. With proper filtration and disinfection for potable use, water quality can exceed that of wells or community water without the added chlorine. Large roof areas found on farms can supply enough water for dairies, livestock and domestic use. A study of average rainfall and roof area can guarantee the amount of water you can collect.


How To Benefit from Rainwater Collection in a Rural AreaThe return on investment of a rainwater harvesting system for a farm can be as little as 3 years, saving thousands per year on water costs.

For the rural homeowner with large landscaping, water demand can be expensive. A larger cistern as a supplementary source can save money on your monthly bill from the water district. Whether your needs are large or small for water use you can benefit from rainwater collection in a rural application.