Democracy Unlimited Humboldt County Rainwater

A Case Study in Open Source Community Action for Sustainability

Lonny Grafman - March 2009

who owns the rain?

•Colorado and Utah - rainwater collection is illegal.•Tucson and many parts of India - rainwater collection is mandatory.•Bolivia, Year 2000, people injured and killed over water rights.

http://www.internationalist.org/lapazmujeres171003www.jpg

why do it?

•Water security•Less impact on the waste water treatment plant•Less impact on often failing sewer systems•Water quality•Cost•Independence•Less runoff, less erosion•less processing•Local groundwater recharge•Because it works

how does it work?

•a hole•a bucket •a bucket, + end use•a roof and a barrel, + end use•a roof, a filter and a barrel, + end use•a roof, a filter, a first flush and a barrel, + end use

how does it work?

•Rainfall data (R in in/time)•Footprint of collection surface (F in ft2)•Efficiency of collection surface (e ~ .5 to .95)•Conversion from ft3 to gal (7.48 gal/ft3)•Collection/time = R * 1ft/12in * F * 7.48 gal/ft3 * e

how does it work?•E.g. a 1900 square foot house with shingle roofMar total = 2.64 in/mo * 1ft/12in * 1900 ft2 * 7.48 gal/ft3 * .8Mar total = 2500 gallons for the month

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

1.21 1.3

2.643.62

4.844.19 4.17

3.594.23

3.4 2.971.93

1971 to 2000 Rainfall Averages (inches) for Columbia, Missouri

(sta

tion

ID #

2317

73)

how does it work?•Or… rule of thumb without roof efficiency factor•.6 gallons for every inch of rainfall on each square foot.

0.6 gal/(in * square foot)

how does it really work?

Democracy Unlimited Humboldt

County

A Client

Service Learning

Research & Design

Building

End Use

The End

or not…

Omar Diaz

Steven and Trinity Addison

Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap

Tressie Blue Word

David Cobb

CITY OF EUREKA- General Plan Goals & PoliciesGoal 1.KPolicies 1.K.1Wherever feasible, the natural terrain, drainage and vegetation of the neighborhood should be preserved with superior examples contained within parks or greenbelts.•Neighborhood design should help conserve resources and minimize waste. •Neighborhoods should provide for the efficient use of water through the use of natural drainage, drought tolerant landscaping, and recycling.

results

•1.5 years later•Rainwater System - $1,630•Variance cost additional - $785•Fence cost - $600•Variance granted

so… what if I think rainwater is collection is stupid?

•No problem. What sustainability cause do you care about?•How do we mobilize your community to address that cause?•What tools exist to help?

A few tools

•Wikis• Wikipedia.org, appropedia.org, openfarmtech.org

•Journals• Int’l Journal for Service Learning in Engineering• Directory of Open Access Journals

•Communication• Asterix, Identi.ca, wordpress.org, joomla.org

•Productivity Software• Openoffice.org, Firefox