Saved by a rainy day? Californians ‘harvest’ water during historic storms
When Kitty Bolte looked at her yard at the start of California’s powerful winter storms, she saw more than half a foot of standing water behind her house. At first Bolte, a horticulturalist by trade, contemplated pumping it out onto the street. But with the historic rains coming in the midst of a historic drought, that seemed oddly wasteful. So instead, she and her boyfriend decided to save it. They found a neighbor selling IBC totes – large 330-gallon plastic containers surrounded by wire – on Craigslist, and filled them up using an inexpensive Home Depot pump. They also dragged some spare garbage cans outside to sit under the downpour, gathering 800 gallons in all. … One inch of rain on a 1,000 sq ft roof can result in 600 gallons of water – enough to water a 4 by 8 ft food garden for 30 weeks. In her cisterns, Dougherty collects much more – 2,000 gallons at a time that are stored in large plastic vessels that can be closed off.
Related articles:
- Fox 40 – Sacramento: Where does the stormwater in Sacramento go?
- The Public’s Radio: California storms feed systems set up to capture rainwater