Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Vol. 1: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Vol. 2: Water-Harvesting Earthworks, recently submitted a guest article on The Oil Drum about the 8 Principles for Successful Rainwater Harvesting.

From the article:

My interest in water -harvesting arose from a desire both to reduce my cost of living and to be part of the solution rather than the problem in my desert city of Tucson, Arizona. One of Tucson’s biggest problems is its mismanagement of water resources, pulling more each year from the water table than nature can replace. This is a practice that has dried out the Santa Cruz river, killed countless springs and wells, and severely depleted available groundwater resources.

Living in the desert has put a special emphasis on water -harvesting for me, but it’s a valuable strategy for non-desert environments, too. Rainwater harvesting is effective for reducing or preventing erosion and downstream flooding while improving stormwater quality. Thus, Portland and Seattle have embraced water-harvesting to protect salmon populations, and Maryland is doing the same to protect the Chesapeake Bay. And anywhere in the world, water -harvesting is a smart strategy for helping to recharge groundwater tables, springs, wells, and rivers.

Back in 1994, my brother Rodd was also interested in water-harvesting, but as long as we were both renting, all we could do was read up on the subject. At the time, we were both self-employed, making what the government considers poverty wages. No bank would touch us. On our own, neither of us could afford to purchase a home, but together, it was feasible. (It helped that the house we wound up purchasing was about to be condemned.) We did 95% of the renovation work ourselves and used mainly salvaged materials.

Twelve years later, our property value has shot through the roof. The integrated water-harvesting techniques Rodd and I learned and implemented on this once-barren urban lot have transformed it into an oasis in the desert, with temperatures ranging an average ten degrees lower than our neighbors’. Our land produces 15-25% of our food, which includes organic, homegrown fruits, nuts, vegetables, eggs, honey, and mesquite flour grown solely with rainwater and greywater (reclaimed household wash-water.) Our utility bills have been dropping steadily since we moved in and now run an average $20 per month.

 A summary of Brad’s 8 Principles of Successful Rainwater Harvesting:

1. Begin with long and thoughtful observation.
2. Start harvesting rain at the top of your watershed, then work your way down.
3. Always plan an overflow route, and manage overflow as a resource.
4. Start with small and simple strategies that harvest the rain as close as possible to where it falls.
5. Spread, slow and infiltrate the flow of water into the soil.
6. Maximize living and organic groundcover.
7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions.”
8. Continually reassess your system and improve it.

For the full principles with descriptions, see the full article at The Oil Drum.

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