Mandated Rainwater Harvesting

I have been coming across on the web, talk of requiring rainwater harvesting to reduce groundwater pumping and to offset demand drought due to population growth. Santa Fe county, New Mexico, already has such a requirement in place. Here is glimpse of what is mandated in Santa Fe county.

Commercial Requirements

All commercial development is required to collect all roof drainage into cisterns to be reused for landscape irrigation.

Cisterns shall be sized to hold 1.5 gallons per sq. ft. of roofed area (e.g. a 2000 sq.ft. roofed area requires a 3,000 gallon cister). This figure may be adjusted based on landscaping, cisterns shall be sized to proved a months worth of landscape watering.

Residential Requirements

For residential developments 2500 sq.ft or greater the requirements are almost exactly the same as for commercial buildings.

Residential Developments less that 2500 sq.ft. of heated space may use rain barrels, cisterns, or other catchment basins and shall capture water from a minimum of 85% of the roofed area.

Other catchment basins can include directing draingage to landscape areas by swales, tree wells, raised planters or other permaculture techniques.

If you would like the full requirements send me an email, lisa@aridsolutionsinc.com with a fax number.

I think there will have to be some adjustment to this type of mandate for different parts of the country and Santa Fe county may find they want to make some amendments but I think Santa Fe is on the cutting edge, again.

rainwater
rain barrels
environment
sustainability
water conservation