Water-Catchment Systems

Here in California (and many of the western states), water shortages and severe drought issues have become prominent in the news. Local municipalities now have strict water restrictions and neighbors are “drought shaming“, i.e. reporting others’ misuse of water (washing cars, sprinkling lawns). Consumers are even going after commercial growers who export crops like almonds to foreign countries or bottled water companies (like Nestle) for selling our precious water reserves for profits.

That’s why I set up a water-catchment system on my property!

I didn’t realize I could capture almost 8,000 gallons of water from just one storm until we tested out our new rain catchment systems.  Surprisingly, the entire tank filled up in just one night! Three years ago, we installed a 4,999 gallon tank (a 5,000 gallon tank requires a building permit!) to collect rain water from the road above our house.

It was simple to do!  We laid gravel on a 10-foot by 10-foot pad and Scotts Valley Sprinkler and Pipe Supply delivered it exactly where we wanted it to be. We diverted the existing drainage pipes to pour into the top of our tank and hooked the tank up to our drip irrigation system for our fruit tree orchard.

Thrilled by our ability to capture so much water in just one night, we bought 10 IBC tanks that each hold 275 gallons of water. We lined all 10 IBC tanks up behind our house and connected them together with a 2″ PVC pipe. Then we diverted one of the rain gutters from our rooftop to pour directly into one of the IBC tanks. Again, with just one storm, all 10 IBC tanks filled in just one night! We have been watering our gardens with this system all summer.

We also bought a filter system that purifies the water of petroleum and other toxic chemicals for the big tank – we didn’t want those toxins to end up in the fruit we eat!  We’re building a sand-filter system (not as comprehensive) for the IBC tanks to purify the water that runs off our roof; it doesn’t have the toxic waste that the roadway has. 

I plan to add more water-catchment systems so we can capture enough water to irrigate all of our trees, gardens, and landscape. It’s also reassuring to know that if we were ever without water, we could always chlorinate these tanks and have drinking water. Good to know…