Rain water reuse, what's that all about?

     If you asked me as a designer 8 years ago to figure out a way to capture rain water and repurpose it for other uses I probably would have cringed. Living next to one of the largest fresh water bodies in the USA we typically take fresh water for granted, unless sewage is discharged into our fresh water supply. Looking back to the title of this article, "Rain water reuse, what's that all about?", to us its greatest payback conserving our environment by not over taxing our sewage treatment plants with fresh clean water forcing them to allow our basements to backup or discharge mixed wastes into Lake Michigan. Nobody that I have ever designed a system for has ever said, "I'm doing it for the money". Milwaukee has taken an excellent lead in this department in our area. Urban Ecology Center was from my experience one of the first establishments to embrace this concept. Since the their initial installation many more Milwaukee land owners and developers have joined in an effort to effectively collect the rain water from their roofs and reuse it for lawn irrigation and other means. Over the past few years I have had the privilege of helping to design these systems with the help of landscape architects, irrigation contractors and equipment specialists. The UWM Dormitory referred to as Cambridge Commons, installed an elaborate system to harvest the rain water from their upper roof and convey it to a pair of internal filters then stored underground tank which is buried in their courtyard. When the weather station on the roof determines that it would be an ideal time to irrigate the courtyard, a pumping station is energized deep in the bottom of the storage tank and the flow of rain water is directed through a labyrinth of piping and zone valves until the demand is satisfied. So what happens in a draught? One method is to have a secondary water supply, usually municipal water, either fill the cistern to a minimal level to irrigate just enough if a call for water is needed. A second option can be a motorized three way valve that is actuated, again supplied by municipal water, to pressurize the irrigation piping until the demand is satisfied. The current project that I am working on for Dominion Properties employs a different more passive approach which is draught tolerant vegetation.
    
     If this sounds appealing to you, you may want to know what the next steps are. I can highlight a few important ones for you:

1. Research what incentives are available for what types of systems you are interested in this might dictate your next steps.
2. Familiarize yourself with a system to help you understand the space and utilities that might be involved.
3. Get a team of knowledgeable people on board to help you design a system and the infrastructure needed to support the system you have chosen. Without having this the submittal and installation process will be painful and cost you more money in the end.