Home
Harvest and save rainwater for dry spells.
This is a locally owned and operated small business,
installing affordable and efficient rainwater catchment systems.
California's wet 2009 - 2010 winter has left an above-average snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, boosting prospects for additional water deliveries to cities and farms, but this not enough to fully offset three previous years of drought. Even if the wet weather continues, the California Department of Water Resources has stated that the State Water Project will only be able to deliver 35 percent to 45 percent of requested amounts of water. Couple this latest indication of a desertification process with the fact that California's water system was designed to serve 18 million people but now serves 38 million, and one begins to think of how to prepare for a future of scarce water.
If you lived in an average San Francisco East Bay home of 1,200 square feet 
that was equipped with a rainwater catchment system during the storms of September 2009 thru March 1st of this year, you could have captured approximately 12,500 gallons of rainwater. This water could have been used to water your garden between rains, flush your toilets, or do your laundry. It would also be available for the 4 to 6 month dry season that used to began at the middle of June, but now starts 3 weeks earlier and ends 3 weeks later.
Your home already has 3 of the basic elements of a rainwater catchment system: a roof, rain gutters, and downspouts. Add a few more elements like a cistern for storage or a filtration system to clean and purify the harvested rainwater and you have an environmentally sound way of collecting rainwater. Visit our FAQ page to find out all the benefits of rainwater catchment.
Rainwater catchment is a simple time tested solution to the crisis caused by the "worst drought in California's recorded history". Rainwater harvesting not only serves you and your property in a fundamental way, it also reduces the depletion of the reservoirs that serve the San Francisco East Bay. With mandated water restrictions that will become more severe as time passes, harvesting and storing rainwater is simply a common sense approach to a long term problem.
With the Sierra Mountain snow packs becoming smaller,
reservoir levels receding, and its grounds parched, Californians can no longer simply rely on our overtaxed natural resources. California was an arid area before the first European set foot here. U.S. government topography maps label virtually everything West of the Rocky Mountains as arid (one aspect of the definition of arid pertains to the time between rainfalls). And, now with climate change we can see a future in which where we get and how we use water will determine our quality of life and that of future generations.
Just how bad is it right now? The California Department of Water Resources has mandated a 20% reduction in residential use by 2020. The implications of this announcement are staggering.
And, the problem of water scarcity is not limited to California. 18 months ago Scientific American published its August 2008 issue with the main article addressing global water shortages. Unfortunately, the article's solutions are left to slow moving governmental agencies that will have little immediate impact without the broader and active assistance of the earth's human population.
Rainwater harvesting has been used by humanity for thousands of years…
one can still see functioning systems throughout the world (Greece, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Spain immediately come to mind). Currently, many American states are offering incentives to install rainwater catchment systems on older homes and mandating systems on new construction. Rainwater collection is being done in Ohio, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Hawaii... these are a few of the states encouraging residents to add a system to their homes to meet dwindling fresh water resources. With modern materials and technological advances rainwater harvesting has become viable in the modern urban setting. In May of 2008 the San Francisco Chronicle printed an article entitled "Tips on capturing rainwater" detailing how rainwater collection systems were being encouraged and built in the City.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Building Inspection have come together to encourage the use of rainwater catchment. To visit the PUC's web site just click here.
It is now very clear that water conservation entails more than wise use of our fresh water. Harvesting rainwater is the proactive step that supports a sustainable present and future. With all this in mind I started a company devoted to serving the needs of my friends, neighbors, and community.
