CARMEL MONTEREY RAINWATER HARVESTING
Our specialty at Monterey Rainwater is building Rainwater Harvesting Systems that are low cost, low maintenence, and highly sustainable. This is achieved by making the most the design and problem solving skills, I've learned doing construction for 30 years, right here in the Monterey, Carmel area.Rainwater catchment, as far as Carnel and Monterey are concerned, is simply catching the rainwater that hits the roof. This simple feat is performed by diverting the downspouts to channel the water into a holding tank. For the Carmel and Monterey area, our Mediterranean climate makes this process little trickier. Since it only rains four or five months out of the year we can only catch it for this short time. But this still this is more than enough rainwater for excellent rainwater catchment, we just need a place to put it all. This means storage, and a lot of it, at least 2500 gallons to last long dry growing season. The process of rainwater catchment is straightforward enough. First, the source of the water is examined. The roof of course is the place to start, but the location of trees and the debris they produce needs to be considered, along with the design of the roof as the hips and valleys, and how they channel water also needs to be taken into account. The gutter system becomes more important as they channel the water towards your tank.
Next, the tank site needs to be chosen. The aesthetics of the tank site, is a major consideration, and can be easily be addressed by proper design, such as using a small tank by the house and keeping the major storage further away, then camouflaging the tank through various means, such as fencing, screens, or trellises with plants or even an artistic paint job. The tank delivery, and placing the tank can be a little tricky. A 2500 gallon tank is 8 feet tall and 8 feet across, but they are pretty light when empty, and they roll easily, so little ingenuity goes a long way. Once in place, the tank is connected to the source. The downspout is cut, and a diverter is installed. This device has a screen filter that sends the leaves, and debris, down the old downspout and lets the clean watr be diverted to the tank. Both these screens are self cleaning and should be maintenance free. After the second screening, the water is sent to yet another component that is unique to rainwater catchment.
This fourth component is the First Flush system. It allows the first 10 gallons of water to clean the roof, allowing the dirty rinse water to be disposed of. This is to keep the dust and pollen and anything else that builds up on the roof during the drier season from entering your tank. As more rain falls this system closes itself off and sends the cleaner water, off to your tank. The piping to your tank can be underground and with proper design, gravity can be used to send this water into your tank. The tank is quite simple, there’s an overflow outlet, that sends the excess water, out of the tank , once the tank is full. There is also a water outlet on the side of tank. This is carefully designed for multiple uses, such as having a tap right at the tank but would also include an option of a hook up to an irrigation system. And that's pretty much it. Rainwater catchment is a logical, reliable, alternative water source, that provides as much water as you can hold.
The obvious use for this alternative water supply is as irrigation for the yard and garden. But in a major crisis this could easily be treated for use as drinking water. It could also have some very valuable benefit as a water source for flushing toilets, but this time this needs some more investigation.
Our local water shortage is such, that Cal-Am and the Monterey
Peninsula Regional Water District have teamed up to offer a
significant rebate, to promote the installation of these systems.
They are willing to pay $25 for every 100 gallons of rain catchment
system installed, up to 3000 gallons. This comes to $625 for 2500
gallon tank. I stress to 2500 gallon tank because it' an excellent
size for residential use, and seems to be offered for a much lower
price than tanks, just a little bit bigger. These systems are very
sustainable; use no energy, last for decades, need little or no
maintenance. And with the price of water skyrocketing, they’re a
sound economic investment as well.