Let's Conserve Water

By Carole Terrell

Question: What services does Water Solutions offer?
Rick Icenhower, Water Solutions: After 26 years offering wholesale greenhouse products, we changed our focus to rainwater harvesting, storm water management, infiltration systems, runoff prevention and excavation.

Q: What are the benefits of rainwater harvesting?
A: To save water, energy, money and reduce erosion and stormwater runoff. Capturing rain that falls on roofs reduces flash floods and household stormwater runoff. Less stormwater runoff may reduce the stormwater collection fee for the household and will improve the health and quality of our watershed and replenish the water table.

Q: Are harvesting systems available for home and landscape use?
A: We sell complete cottage, home and commercial systems to supply water for nonpotable use and landscape irrigation, which can include backup refill if rainwater is unavailable. Irrigation is one of the largest uses of water, accounting for 50 percent of water use. Customers can decide what uses they want to address and we can design a system to fit that need, either large or small. Fire protection in remote areas is also a major use for these types of systems where water sources for firefighting are not available.

Q: Are above-ground and below-ground systems available?
A: Yes. We can place above-ground tanks (cisterns) from 210 gallons to 3,000 gallons, steel Corgal tanks from 600 to 87,900 gallon and beautiful wooden TimberTanks from 1,000 to 37,000 gallons. Steel and wooden tanks are lined with food grade vinyl for clean storage.
Plastic below-ground tanks are available from 430 to 1,700 gallons, but by use of Matrix D-Raintanks systems we can create almost any size underground cistern. This Raintank system is also used for infiltration to collect stormwater runoff and allow slow infiltration back to the ground to help recharge our ground water by wrapping the tanks with a geotextile fabric only, instead of adding the vinyl liner for detention.

Q: How does rainwater harvesting work?
A: It is a very simple system used for centuries. We simply collect water from the building's gutter system and filter it before it enters the tank, and pump the captured water through a filter system to a dedicated plumbing line to the end point of use. A roof of 1,000 square feet will collect 600 gallons of water from a one-inch rain event, so large homes and buildings have a tremendous capacity of water to be collected and reused. A covered gutter system in wooded areas aids in maintaining a cleaner system.

Q: How involved is installation of a system?
A: It simply depends on the type of system, the need and location. It may be as simple as a rain barrel with a gravity hose bib to water plants, to a school or commercial project for large collection needs, which become quite involved. All systems come with overflow protection in case of major rain events.

Q: What is the price range for a system?
A: Again, it depends on the type of system and the consumer's needs. It could vary from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars or more for larger systems. We can supply systems to meet most needs large or small. The storage tank or cistern is the most costly and important component of any system.

Q: How should the system be maintained?
A: The gutter filter and inside filters should be checked monthly and the storage may need to be drained and cleaned yearly. We do sell a UV purification system to kill 99 percent of dangerous organisms if needed for potable use. The bulb on those systems requires yearly replacement.

Q: What are suggested uses for rainwater?
A: Irrigation of plants and lawns is a primary use. Flushing toilets, car washing, clothes washing and fire protection are among other suggested uses.

Q: What changes have you noticed in water resources over the years? What do you think the future holds for our water supplies?
A: In 50 years of living on the family farm in Leicester, I have watched the flow of creeks and rivers in the area fall to one-third to one-half of what they were when I was a child, while becoming even more sediment-filled and destructive during heavy rain events. There are solutions to many of these problems if people become involved in protecting our fresh water resources. Our world supply of fresh water is being greatly reduced by global warming, which is causing the melting of the polar ice caps, decreased snow and overall fresh water depletion.
As with all problems, we need to be part of the solution, not the problem.

PHOTO by Ewart Ball
Home Improvement-Rainwater Harvesting.jpg
Joy and Rick Icenhower of Water Solutions show a 3,000 gallon above-ground cistern. They installed the cistern on a home in Swannanoa for rainwater collection.

Name: Rick & Joy Icenhower
Company: Water Solutions by Icenhower's Farm Inc., 179 Icenhower Road, Leicester, 683-3237
Title: Owner