On July 21, 2011, I joined the Shades of Green Energy radio show on 91.7 FM KOOP in Austin, Texas to discuss rainwater collection systems in the perspective of regional water issues in central Texas. The first guest on the show was Roland Ruiz, Assistant General Manager at the Edwards Aquifer Authority. He discussed the effects of the current drought in Texas on the Edwards Aquifer. Mr. Ruiz provided some great information about the current state of the Edwards Aquifer which supplies water for millions of people in Texas.
I was asked to join the discussion in order to provide information about IWS and the water conservation services that we provide. I wanted to provide options for people that they could do in the face of the current extreme drought. People always ask us how rainwater harvesting can help when during a drought when it is not raining. The fact is that even during a drought, there is a little bit of rainfall. Rather than letting this scarce rainwater fall off your roof and soak into the ground (in areas that don’t necessarily needs the extra water), a rainwater harvesting system allows you to store up the precious rainwater in order to apply it later on the landscaping areas that need it. Definitely there will be times when your rainwater collection cistern is empty during droughts, but at least you would have the ability to collect any roof runoff that may come during a drought.
But rainwater harvesting is just one option for water conservation during a drought. We want people to think about first reducing the need for water in your landscaping through changing your landscaping or applying irrigation water on your landscaping in an efficient manner. In addition, other systems such as graywater reuse and AC condensate collection can help provide additional water for landscaping needs during a drought. You can find out more about these systems at the IWS website.
You can listen to the podcast of the show. The radio show also has a blog entry about the water conservation show.