Rain Water Harvesting Project Update- RGC Sierra Club & Bountiful Alliance in T or C

Rain Water Harvesting is all about capturing and storing rainfall to irrigate plants or to supply people and animals. It is one of the oldest known gardening watering methods, dating back to the beginnings of agriculture. Water harvesting methods are still used by the Tohono O'odham and Hopi tribes, who traditionally plant after the onset of summer and winter rains.

Water is a precious resource in Sierra County, New Mexico. There are roughly 8-10 inches of rain per year. Storing water that falls during monsoon season can help water a garden or fruit trees for a family. You can store water in a variety of ways: large dark colored plastic storage tanks, suitable for water storage are good to use. For a simple storage system, place a barrel on a raised platform under a downspout. The barrel should have an external pipe with a shutoff valve to control the amount of water sent to the plantings. If you have designed your system properly, gravity will enable you to obtain water from your roof and gutter system into the barrel followed to a drip irrigation system without a pump.

The Bountiful Alliance, working with a grant from the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, have given harvesting opportunities to 10 homes of Truth or Consequences. Saving 1000’s of gallons a year will allow families to grow food for their families benefit. In good years, many may be able to sell or trade their bounty for other items. This generous Sierra Club grant will allow volunteers with The Bountiful Alliance (TBA), to help families understand the value of rainwater harvesting and assist them in setting up a collection tank provided by the grant. Teaching how to take advantage of this bounty from the sky, residents will direct water to their gardens and trees. This saves energy which might be used to pump water up from a well or provided by the city water system. In addition, water harvested from roofs and pavement is naturally part of the planet’s hydrologic cycle. Rain and drainage can provide low salt content water that can dilute existing salts in the soils. This helps the plant grow at the right pH, producing more vegetables or fruits.

The Water Harvesting Project allows the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club and The Bountiful Alliance to make a significant impact on the lives of 10 families in Sierra County. This cooperative effort will be filmed for educational purposes and will be aired on the community’s Public Access Channel. For some families, this may make available some healthier choices for living.

“We’ve moved away from harvesting traditions over the past 150 years,” according to Brad Lancaster, in Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1-Guiding Principles. (Rainsource Press, Tucson, AZ) The theory suggests that we’ve taken too much out of the aquifers and haven’t made the best use of waters from the primary hydrologic cycle-rainwater. Surface and ground waters are secondary waters in the hydrologic cycle. They were convenient and inexpensive for homeowners. Primary water sources were ignored and even feared, avoided or diverted. This worked for some time, but this project hopes to educate local residents on the importance of using the resource before it goes down river to other communities.