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Picture yourself in a lifeboat, dying of thirst. You can’t drink seawater, so like any decent contestant on Survivor, you hope you have a scrap of plastic or some palm leaves (or a boot) to capture water as it falls from the sky. We as a collective world are in that lifeboat. Water shortages are predicted by many to be the major ecological issue of the coming years. So what can you do to help relieve the water shortage? Practice what the Romans and people in the Middle East did 4,000 years ago. Harvest rain to get water “the old-fashioned way.”
Rainwater harvesting, like many “green” ideas, is an ancient technique that was long forgotten after our civilization became “civilized,” that is, disconnected from practical ways of doing things that perhaps never should have completely disappeared. Back in those “old” days, everything we did was localized—done from the home, the yard, the street, and out from there. We didn’t have utilities, water companies, or delivery trucks for fuel. We did not need to connect to the grid because there was no grid. These days, the concept of not connecting to the grid system seems outlandish. Even scary or impossible. But is it really?
Many U.S. cities have adopted creative, cost-effective ways to stop wasting rainwater.
Austin, TX, offers rebates for rainwater-harvesting systems. The Seattle Public Utility has sponsored sales of residential rain barrels. In Canada, the city of Toronto offers a free service to homeowners to disconnect downspouts from the sewer system and install rain barrels. As Annie Lenox sings in the Eurythmics song, “Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory.” It’s time we all reached back to our roots to help conserve our most precious natural resource.
Harvesting rainwater for the garden
In the 19th century, farmers generated electricity by wind and hydro power—which now seems avant garde. Previously, settlers had storage tanks for water, which now seems unconventional. But now we need to return to the settler mentality. Tapping into the stored rainwater during a dry period will be less burden on the aquifer or central water source. And capturing rainwater during a storm means less burden on the overtaxed storm-water drainage systems and less polluted water from road run-off and pesticides from our lawns being dumped into our steams and rivers. If you are on municipal water, it makes economic sense to harvest rainwater because it saves you on water charges.
Rainwater collected for landscape irrigation requires installers to avoid roof materials that can leach zinc or copper, which can damage plants. Wooden shingles treated with chemicals such as chromated copper arsenate or roofs that have zinc anti-moss strips run off toxic chemicals that you want to keep out of your garden.
Harvesting rainwater for the home
For water use inside the home you must carefully analyze (and possibly change) the roof-surface materials. Roof material affects both the amount of water collected and its quality. Although both can be used, steel is better than porous asphalt because rough materials absorb more water and bird feces. Most people only use rainwater for not-potable uses such as for toilets or washing clothes. For potable use of rainwater, the best roof materials are metal, clay, and cement. Asbestos roof materials used in older homes should never be part of a system to provide drinking water, nor should lead, which is sometime used for roof flashing.
Roof systems must have a filter before rainwater enters a cistern. Typically, a roof that captures rainwater will then drain to storage tanks that can be stowed under a deck. The tanks can have a total capacity of 10,000 gallons. Water passes through a filtration system before entering storage tanks, then is pumped out of the tanks and flows through a final sediment filter and a carbon-block filter before treatment by a NSF-approved ultraviolet disinfection system.
www.gardenwatersaver.com offers a simple rainwater collection system that can collect rainwater for your garden and plants.
www.psat.wa.gov/Publications/LID_studies/rooftop_rainwater.htm is a government site that offers more information about collecting rainwater
