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Harvesting Rainwater by Not Letting It Go to Waste
Brad Lancaster's garden in Tucson, Ariz., features landscaping that takes advantage of rainwater and runoff from the adjoining street and path. His home features solar panels, a solar water heater and homemade solar oven. Brad Lancaster hide caption
Brad Lancaster's garden in Tucson, Ariz., features landscaping that takes advantage of rainwater and runoff from the adjoining street and path. His home features solar panels, a solar water heater and homemade solar oven.
Brad LancasterRead an Excerpt
Brad Lancaster's property, at the time of purchase in 1994. Most runoff drained off the site, up against the home, or through the garage. All potentially reusable "graywater" from household drains went down the sewer, and a palm tree blocked winter solar access. Courtesy Brad Lancaster hide caption
Brad Lancaster's property, at the time of purchase in 1994. Most runoff drained off the site, up against the home, or through the garage. All potentially reusable "graywater" from household drains went down the sewer, and a palm tree blocked winter solar access.
Courtesy Brad Lancaster
An illustration of Lancaster's property in 2006 shows that no runoff leaves the site. Street runoff is directed to basins and trees along the curb. All graywater is directed to and recycled within the landscape. With palm trees removed, winter solar access is regained. Courtesy Brad Lancaster hide caption
An illustration of Lancaster's property in 2006 shows that no runoff leaves the site. Street runoff is directed to basins and trees along the curb. All graywater is directed to and recycled within the landscape. With palm trees removed, winter solar access is regained.
Courtesy Brad Lancaster
"Graywater" drains (marked with destination: fig, white sapote, orange, and peach trees) beside a washing machine. The washer's drain hose is placed in a different pipe with each load of laundry. Brad Lancaster hide caption
"Graywater" drains (marked with destination: fig, white sapote, orange, and peach trees) beside a washing machine. The washer's drain hose is placed in a different pipe with each load of laundry.
Brad LancasterBig rains slammed the West this week — big news in a region that has gotten used to dry weather.
Now some city governments are looking to rain to ease their water woes.
Thousands of years old, the concept is catching on in drought-prone areas, including Tucson, Ariz., where Brad Lancaster lives. He's the author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.
As Lancaster explains, harvesting rainwater means to "capture the rain as close as possible to where it falls, and then to use it as close as possible to where it falls."
The easiest method is to use the soil to capture the rainwater. "You create these bowl-like shapes in the landscape that collect water. You mulch the surface and plant them so the water quickly infiltrates, and then the plants become your living pumps."
"So you then utilize that water in the form of a peach, a pomegranate, an apple, wildlife habitat and beauty," Lancaster tells Renee Montagne.
A second, better-known version of rainwater harvesting is collecting rainwater from a roof in a tank, or a cistern.
The third example is harvesting wastewater, also known as graywater, from household drains, including showers, bathtubs, bathroom sinks and washing machines. (Other drains — such as the toilet, kitchen sink and dishwasher — are high in organic mater, such as food or bacteria, and are not suitable for reuse.)
Household wastewater is "an excellent source of rainwater that we can reuse to passively irrigate our landscapes in times of no rain," Lancaster says.
Lancaster says that 30 percent to 50 percent of potable water consumed by the average single-family home is used for landscaping. But nearly all of the irrigation water needs can be met just with rainwater and graywater, he says.
Rainwater harvesting can be useful even in areas that are not affected by drought, helping reduce flooding downstream, for example, Lancaster says.
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