Rainwater harvesting captures, stores, and diverts rainwater for later use. The captured water is used for landscape irrigation because the water is free of salts and other harmful minerals and does not have to be treated. Capturing rainwater for the landscape not only makes great use of a valuable resource, it can also save money on the water bill.

Harvesting rainwater not only reduces the demand on our city and state’s water supply, it can also prevent flooding and erosion by slowing runoff and allowing it to soak into the ground. Reducing run-off helps to reduce the contamination of surface water with sediments, fertilizers, and pesticides in rainfall run-off.

For each 1,000 square feet of the roof area or catchment surface of your home, a harvesting system can collect approximately 620 gallons per 1 inch of rain fall.

Catchment is the surface of your roof that rain falls onto and collects from. The catchment area a home is larger than the square footage of a floor plan. It includes garage, covered deck area, and the amount of eave overhang. The vertical slope of your roof does not increase your catchment area, so only the "footprint" of the roof should be considered.

(photo by Yuliya Libkina: Rain In Summer)