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GBlist: water recovery
In response to the discussion on rainwater collection: does anyone have
first-hand information on toxicity from roofing materials, air pollutants,
etc.?
I bring this up because there has been some debate on whether or not
rainwater collected from roof systems could be considered potable. I know of
a family in Vancouver, WA that gets their water supply exclusively from a
roof collection system (they live in an area that is off of the city supply,
and have water quality problems, and it turned out that the cost of
installing a filtration system was going to be equal to that of installing
water holding tanks and a roof collection system). They calculated their
amount of yearly water consumption, and installed the water tanks above
ground on a load-bearing concrete pad (they considered putting the storage
tanks below ground for aesthetic purposes, but would have needed a larger
pump and maintenance would have been more difficult). The water coming off
the roof goes through a 5-micron filter to get rid of any larger debris
before the water goes into the storage tanks. The water then goes through a
UV field before being used in the house.
It certainly seems viable, especially here in the Pacific NW, to use
rainwater collection systems for a potable water supply. Does anyone out
there have comments on this or other water recovery systems? All of these
things seem pretty logical to me, but I have no background whatsoever on how
these systems measure up in terms of water quality.
Anything would seem better than our current system of stormwater management,
which is basically as follows: water falls on a site, in the form of
rain...we then pay the city and it's stormwater system, to remove this water
from the site...and then pay the city again to bring new water to the site
for consumption.
I would welcome any comments...
Kathleen Holman
Office of Gretchen Vadnais, Landscape Architect
(503) 292-8713
CougKat@aol.com
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