Sustainable Agriculture: Urban Conservation of Water

Sustainable Food depends on clean water, healthy soil and rich nutrients. With the growing sustainable (green) movement, people have been looking to the skies to collect fresh rainwater with a number of devices. One is the rain barrel that connects to the gutter system of a house or an apartment building. Depending on the materials by which the rain will be draining, one can effectively collect rainwater for the garden or at minimum collect for houseplants even if the roofing material is "less than optimal" for collecting drinking water.

But a word of warning: Some states carry laws against collecting your own water. Colorado, Utah and Washington State have some existing laws on collecting water, though they are being challenged by consumers and lawmakers today.

The sentiments of the corporate water companies seems to be at the foremost interest of taking what is freely given and thus capitalizing on it:

"All the water was spoken for here in the Arkansas Basin 100 years ago or more," said Kevin Lusk, water supply engineer for Colorado Springs Utilities. "If the water falls as rain, that's water that was going to get to the stream system, and somebody already has dibs on it, and if somebody intercepts that, it's the same as stealing."

Thankfully, most states don't have a restriction on collecting rainwater.  In fact, the city of River Falls, Wisconsin, encourages the practice with a full-on program, adding other methods of rain collection for both private and municipal benefits, including:

• Roof Gutters and Downspout Disconnects
  
  
  
  • Roof gutters and downspout disconnects re-direct [water] where it can soak into the soil rather than onto a driveway or sidewalk
  
  
  
  


• Rain Gardens
  
  
  
  • Rain gardens are shallow depressions, that collect storm water and allow it to soak into the ground.
  
  
  
  


• Infiltration Swales
  
  
  
  • Infiltration swales are depressions that consist of an underground system of rock and gravel allowing storm water to soak into the ground.
  
  
  
  


• Pervious Pavers
  
  
  
  • Pervious pavers are interlocking paving stones with a hole where they join each other that allows storm water to flow through the pavers into a layer of gravel and then into the soil below it.