Fresh-squeezed Cloud Juice - That is what the sign said at Tank Town, which is the only place in the country I know of that sells bottled rain water. This is a place to the west of Dripping Springs, TX that has metal roofs to collect rainfall and tanks to store it. I love it, but there is a lot more to the story than good bottled water.

The folks at Tank Town have a novelty, but the idea didn't come from the desire for a catchy slogan or better tasting water - those were just a couple of side benefits. Richard Heinichen got the idea of collecting rainfall to sell as bottled water while installing rainfall collection systems. As water becomes more scarce and in higher demand as rural areas grow, rainfall harvesting is one of the most practical ways to supply a home with water. Not only homes, but businesses too can benefit from rainfall harvesting.

According to Heinichen, you can capture about 550 gallons of water if one inch of rain falls on a 1000 square foot collection surface. Think a little more about this. How much surface area does the roof on a house have? How about a barn or a shed? What about a school or a Home Depot? If you're in Dripping Springs or many other parts of central Texas, you know that you will average somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 inches of rainfall each year. Several thousand feet of surface area can catch a lot of water. This water can be used for irrigation and for household use including drinking (with proper treatment).

As more homes are being built around Dripping Springs and in northern Hays and western Travis Counties, the demand for water has put a strain on the supply. The Edwards Aquifer is seeing higher and higher demand. The local lakes can only hold so much water. In the extended drought we're in, wells have been running dry in some areas. Many people buying real estate in northern Hays and western Travis Counties will not have water available to them from a local provider. A new well can easily cost $15,000. That money can go a long way with a rainfall harvesting system.

Say a school district is building a new high school. There will probably be fields for baseball, football, soccer and softball and all of them will need to be watered. Think about the surface area of the roof of a high school. The school must have at least the same amount (or more) roof area as a football field. A football field, including the end zones, has about 57,600 square feet of surface area. If a school has that much, just how much rain water could be collected in a year? Probably much more than could be stored. Could a high school rely on collected rainfall for all its needs? Doubtful, but it certainly would reduce the amount that would need to be purchased from a city or county.

Look at Home Depot or Lowe's. They are huge and they both have garden centers. Why pay for water that has chlorine and fluoride in it when they could use rain water in their garden centers? Another benefit is that the rainfall being harvested wouldn't make it onto the pavement, meaning it wouldn't run into the detention pond.

Growth in the Austin and Dripping Springs area is going to be huge over the next 10 years and beyond. Our local water resources will not be able to keep up with the growth. Conservation measures will have to go into effect for Lake Travis and the Edwards Aquifer. Anyone building a home or commercial property who has the room for the storage tanks should seriously consider harvesting rainfall.

Fresh-squeezed Cloud Juice is a registered trademark and is used with the permission of Tank Town.