New-to-Gabriola company focused on managing water
~ A new business profile ~
Derek Kilbourn
derek@soundernews.com
Tuesday, March 9 2010
Gabriolan John Peirce has joined up with Rainwater Collection’s Bob Burgess from Thetis Island to bring the company’s unique form of maximizing water usage to the island.
Rainwater Collection (RC) has been in operation off of Thetis for the past 10 years. While Bob has been coming to Gabriola off and on in that period, he has partnered with John to have a local representative for the company available for consultations on what residents can do.
It started when John had Bob do the installation on his house.
While John has enough roof coverage and cistern storage to provide ample supply, he wanted to make sure there was enough for the home as well as the orchard and large garden. His property includes a spring and a well, so by using the rooftop catchment and spring for the home, he was able to dedicate the well to the garden.
John said, “But I think what happens is that everybody, particularly on an island like this, has a unique situation. It takes a fair amount of time to look in to the water assets and the needs the homeowner might have.
“Gabriola doesn’t have a water supply problem, it has a water management problem.”
The RC systems involve using cisterns and a set of water tables, as well as long term weather history for the Gulf Islands to create a system which socks water away for the non-rainy days.
Extra details to keep pollen and other contaminants from getting in to the cisterns are part of what RC does.
John refers to catching rainwater as using a ‘sky supply’, comparing it to systems used overseas.
“The Japanese refer to rainwater as sky supply – it’s part of their culture. Britain, Germany and Australia have thriving rainwater harvesting industries. In Bermuda, all new construction must include rainwater harvesting. Austin, Texas offers subsidies to homeowners who are harvesting the rain.
“People should be using their wells as effectively as they can. For example, if a well has a limited supply in the summer, it could be used to fill storage tanks in the late spring when ground water supplies are still healthy.
“As an aside, it’s interesting that the existing Official Community Plan on Gabriola says that all Gabriolan residents are on wells. That’s not even close to true now; I don’t know if it was 15 years ago.
“But I think managing the water resources that we have to protect our aquifers is a critical problem. The only bigger problem is managing the septic, but that’s not my business.”
John added, “Living in the Gulf Islands is possibly the very best place in the world to be. Our Mediterranean climate has provided us with wet winters, and dry summers. A perfect place and climate for growing garden produce, special plants and flowers.
However, because of our topography, we are groundwater sensitive -especially in the summer when little rain falls to replenish our underground aquifers. And in summer, two things happen. We double our individual household demand for water primarily because of outdoor use; and at the same time, our population doubles. So just when our supply of water is lowest, our demand is at its highest.”
Balance is the key to what RC does, according to Bob.
“We know how much rain falls here. If you have 1,000 square feet of roof and you were using it every month, you’d fill about a 4,000 gallon tank, not enough to live from.
“If you put in the size of the roof and your monthly use, we can tell you how many gallons you’ll have at the end of every month. Then we size the storage to be enough to get through the summer. That’s how we minimize the amount of storage.
“Not all systems are rainwater. Sometimes the well is no good in the summer, for whatever reason.
“But if you can use your well water to top up your tank in the spring when the groundwater levels are still healthy, then you can reduce the amount of storage.”
Bob and John spoke about the triple cleaning process which is built in to RC systems - and stressed the importance of regular maintenance on cisterns.
The RC systems can be installed either during construction (preferred) or as part of a retrofit. Bob and John explained that being able to work with the builders during new construction certainly helps as it allows for incorporating the system in from the start.
John said, “What we are coming to recognize is that each new resident and visitor puts increased demand on our limited ground water supply, and on the reservoirs and infrastructure of our Water Districts.
The 2006 Polis Project report from the University of Victoria “Beyond Pipes and Pumps” made the argument for “increased water productivity”, and presented 10 ways of “…managing water demand as a core element of sustainable water management”. This of course includes water conservation and public education, but the Polis Project authors also recommended that we “Look to the Sky”, and make more use of rainwater collection and localized storage as an alternative source of water.”
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