Pan for real gold

“Water -- The New California Gold Rush” is the theme of this year’s American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association annual conference in Santa Monica, Calif., Sept. 16-18. Founded in 1994, the goal of the association is to promote rainwater catchment systems in the United States. Its membership consists of more than 400 people from around the world, including city, state and federal government officials, academia, manufacturers and suppliers of rainwater harvesting equipment, consultants and other interested individuals.

Santa Monica is an appropriate place to hold the conference since it began offering financial rain harvest rebates this summer for citizens, businesses and institutions that redirect or collect rainwater. Rebates as high as $500 are available for the construction of cisterns for rainwater storage.

Jeff Kray, a partner at Marten Law Group in Seattle, expects regulators will soon begin to look at the practice of collecting rainwater as water becomes more scarce. Colorado prohibits the harvesting of rainwater. The state’s current law requires 100% replacement of any precipitation captured; thereby requiring the user to find an equal amount of replacement water. Kray said that Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia and Washington are either regulating or considering regulating rainwater collection. In Santa Fe, rainwater collection is a requirement. Every new 2,500-sq.-ft. or larger residential or commercial building in the city must be equipped with a rainwater collection system.

This summer, EnterpriseWorks received a $4.2 million, 5-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to look at rainwater harvesting. The Washington-based nonprofit organization will analyze domestic rainwater harvesting systems throughout the world, conduct research to reduce the costs of water storage units, and develop and test a market-based approach for the introduction of domestic rainwater harvesting systems to provide drinkable water to areas in need.

As concerns for having adequate supplies of clean water continue to increase, expect to see more states and municipalities weigh in on the collection of rainwater by businesses and homeowners.

-- Dave