Catch Your Water from the Sky

Colorado’s first Legal Rain Catchment System Built on Hastings Mesa

By Joanna Kanow

Last fall, one of the most litigious cases found in Colorado courts made legal the act of catching rain from the sky. What was once considered criminal in Colorado, (stealing water that was rightfully owned by someone else before it made it to earth), is now free for all residents to harness. A home being built on Hastings Mesa, just outside of Telluride, is the first in the State of Colorado to be issued a legal permit for a rain catchment system.

Kelli Petersen, currently of Mill Valley, California, is finally building her green dream home, and feels privileged to have found a spot and a community supportive of a sustainable life style. It was the 2008 MountainFilm Festival, she reflects, with its focus on water, which inspired her to realize her catchment opportunities. Petersen began working with Stewart Goforth, of Montrose Water Factory, in the fall of 2009 to design her home with a cutting edge rain catchment system. In order to design a successful system, careful calculations and intimate collaboration between architect Sundra Hines, of Hines Designs, and Eric Dickerson of DCI Construction, had to be established in order to create a successful whole house rain catchment system. They had to estimate the water needs for the household, average yearly precipitation for that particular microclimate and equate in possible drought years. Using this precipitation data, they figured the maximum surface area of catchment available to determine the amount of water that can reach storage. The two full time residents will live solely off the water harvested.

For this home, rain and snow is diverted into gutters off of the surface of the oxidizing metal roof. It is then fed into five 1,500 gallon storage tanks engineered into the foundation of the home, which is highly insulated with styrofoam blocks. The house is plumbed with non-reactive piping that will not be harmed by the acidity of rainwater, and low flow fixtures are implemented wherever possible. Finally, Stewart Goforth has designed the filtration and disinfection process that will then make the water safe for drinking without the use of chemicals. The water will be tested for bacteria per state mandates to maintain a high-standard of drinking water free of any threat of water-borne contaminates. This filtration process is designed to offer safe, friendly high quality water in a self-contained low maintenance environment.

I asked Petersen, who lives comfortably in the Bay Area and works with biotech companies studying cancer treatments, why she decided to build a green home that will actually take more effort to live in. She will have to monitor her solar and water storage systems frequently, as well as reduce her natural resource use, and even may have to hike or ski into access her front door. She responded, “It will be a very comfortable way to live, and we are willing to work at our lifestyle to make it happen.” She added, as if these sentiments were the consensus “It is currently a trend for everyone, at the moment, to think about what we can do differently to give back to society somehow. It’s what we can do right now to be more sustainable.”
When this type of thinking becomes the norm, and this kind of building is no longer considered “Alternative,” implementing sustainable designs into our built environment will then attribute to significant positive environmental shifts in the current unsustainable “norm.” And as Goforth likes to remind us, “It’s water. It’s life. Without water, that’s it.” Imagine the satisfaction now, when it rains; money saved, independence, and to those who reside in the home...a house warming gift from the sky.

Joanna Kanow is the owner of EcoSpaces: Green Building Solutions: Telluride’s source for Green Building Materials. Providing non- toxic, sustainable, renewable and recycled products to the community. EcoSpaces’ Green Design showroom is located at the Society Turn Business Center in Telluride, and also serves the greater US on www.EcoBuildingMaterials.com. Call 970-728-1973 to arrange an appointment.