Water Catchment is Easy & Affordable!

The rain is back and our parched soil and thirsty plants are soaking up as much as they can!

However, even if we have the wildly-wet winter they are predicting – it won’t be enough.

After weathering four full years of historic drought, it will take much more than one rainy season to fill up our reservoirs and replenish our ground water. Therefore, we need to retain as much of these magical drops as we can!

Online calculators can estimate the amount that can be collected based on the size of your roof and the rain we receive. An average size roof (1,360 square feet) with 10 inches of rain will yield 8,160 gallons.

Setting up a water catchment system is easy and affordable. You can start with just a single storage tank (typically 40-100 gallon) under a downspout with a spigot and bucket/hose attached. Or, you can design an elaborate system of multiple, daisy-chained tanks powered by pumps that connect directly to your irrigation system. There are options for standalone systems that can be used regardless of their location. Per Tom Spargo, Bay Area inventor of the RainSaucer, “our products allow you to catch up to 27 gallons of water per inch of rain and can be used in areas where you don’t have a downspout or gutter. The water is much cleaner than that harvested from a roof, and is a great option for community gardens or remote areas of your landscape”.

Tanks come in a wide array of colors, shapes and sizes. You can find decorative ones that look like planters, wine barrels or fountains. There are also large, industrial strength versions made from fiberglass or concrete. Master Gardener, Milly Wright, just installed a 2,825 gallon tank, and with just the rain on November 2^nd, it was over half full!

You need to do a little prep work before you decide on the size and number of tanks you want to install. A single 50 gallon tank is approximately 2’ wide by 3’ tall. A 2800 gallon tank is nearly 9’ wide by 7 ½’ tall. A gallon of water weighs 8.3 gallons, so that 50 gallon tank will be 415 pounds when filled. It is a really good idea to build a platform or stand in order to elevate your tank – especially if you are going to harvest the water using a bucket or hose. You either need to have the necessary carpentry skills or hire out the job to make sure your stand can support the weight of your system.

Install a spigot and an on/off valve near the bottom of the tank to access the water. Insert a screen under the downspout to filter out leaves, pine needles and other debris. Use a tight-fitting lid on the tank to make sure kids, pets and wildlife don’t fall in.

Whether you start out small or jump head-first into a mammoth tank (just kidding); preserving any amount of our precious and ever-waning water can make a big difference.

If you go into the next dry summer with a good reserve, it may be enough to keep you under your water allotment and help you avoid those costly assessments!

Here’s wishing you a very wet and wonderful Thanksgiving Season – bring on the rain!!!