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ARCSA Supports California’s Plan to Harvest Rain & Stormwater |
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As part of a multi-pronged solution for California’s intensifying drought, the ARCSA plays an important educational and technical role promoting decentralized rainwater harvesting that would decrease demand for centralized potable water supplies.
A well-designed, installed and maintained rainwater harvesting system can provide significant amounts of high-quality water. Given an average 12 inches of annual Southern California precipitation, a 1,500-square-foot residential roof could collect over 10,000 gallons annually; and for a 100,000 ft2 commercial building, the quantity is over 700,000 gallons.
The California drought has worsened since Governor Brown’s January declaration that the state is in an official drought emergency. On July 15, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted statewide emergency regulations to dramatically reduce potable water use and increase the supply. Two weeks later, the legislature approved a $7.5 Billion water bond referendum for the November ballot, setting aside funds for new local water supplies. Among other plans, the state is formulating a Stormwater Strategy Initiative to augment local water supplies. These three actions view rain and stormwater as valuable resources, not as a waste product to discharge. And the drought story and water supply challenge is not unique to California – it is similar in the Midwest, southeast and other parts of the west.
These growing water problems reinforce the value of harvesting rain and stormwater to provide distributed sources of safe water and to conserve municipal potable water. ARCSA’s mission is to promote sustainable rainwater harvesting practices to help solve potable, non-potable, stormwater and energy challenges throughout the world. Harvesting rain does not diminish downstream supplies, but merely “borrows” it along the way.
ARCSA is gathering funds, experts and technical writers to create a national rainwater harvesting manual and is soliciting tax-deductible donations. For more information, please contact Heather Kinkade, ARCSA Executive Director, at 512.617.6528 or info@arcsa.org. |
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