Bringin' in the Rain

Rick Scarlet doesn’t see the point of using perfectly good drinking water for flushing toilets or watering gardens – and in early May, he became a pioneer for others who feel the same way.

He learned, however, that installing a residential rainwater harvesting system and plumbing that would allow him and his wife, Gloria, to flush their toilets and water their gardens with rainwater was no simple task.

It probably wouldn’t have been too tough to get a city code variance, but Rick Scarlet wanted to make it easier for other homeowners to harvest rainwater, too.

“(The city) offered a variance,” Scarlet said. “But then the people who came after us would have to go through the same thing we went through, so we thought we’d tackle the whole ball of wax.”

Storm-water management
Scarlet first approached Tiffany Frey, project manager at the James River Basin Partnership, for advice on how to proceed. The two then went to the city to discuss the idea.

Scarlet and the JRBP worked with the city for more than a year to develop building codes that allow Springfield residents to install rainwater harvesting systems and to pipe that water into their homes.

Carrie Lamb, water quality coordinator for the city of Springfield, said Scarlet’s project fit with the city’s efforts to manage storm-water runoff. “We needed to change our city code to actually allow that and facilitate the review process for when somebody comes into the city and wants to do something like that,” Lamb said. “It was a good initiative for us to get moving on this and get these code changes made.” Springfield City Council approved new plumbing codes March 26. They took effect May 1, and later that week, the city’s first residential rainwater harvesting system was installed at the Scarlets’ home in Springfield’s Rountree district.

Scarlet said he had a design in mind, but during meetings with the city he learned about International Green Construction Codes, which the city chose to follow in making allowances for untreated water to be plumbed into residences.

“I had to tweak the system that I had in my mind to come together with the city’s new green building code,” Scarlet said.

The result is a 3,000-gallon catchment system. Scarlet worked with Stuart Murr of Springfield-based Smart Design as technical consultant and installer on the project.

Raindrops falling
Scarlet estimates about 12,000 gallons of rainwater a year runs off the half of his 1,100-square-foot home’s roof that feeds the system. The 12,000 gallons that hit the other half of his house annually is collected in rain barrels and also used to water the Scarlets’ gardens.

From the roof, rainwater pours into a filtering system on the house that doesn’t look much different from a standard downspout. There, contaminants such as bird droppings and leaves are filtered away, allowing debris-free rainwater to flow to the buried cistern.

From there, the water is piped into the house to be used for flushing and to outdoor spigots for watering.

“In the future, we could set it up for (creating) potable water if we decide to go that way,” Scarlet said.

The rainwater harvesting system isn’t the Scarlets’ first foray into the eco-friendly realm. They have solar panels that not only provide them with light, but also a paycheck of sorts against their utility bills, as anything they don’t use is fed back to City Utilities.

“We’re probably making a 5 percent return on our money on the solar panels. It’s been a better investment than most investments. CU owes us money pretty much every month,” Scarlet said.

The Scarlets heat their home and water and cook with a wood stove. They use light-emitting-diode lighting and have foam insulation in their walls. Ceiling fans and an attic fan keep the house cool. When outdoor temperatures rise, they can turn on a 5,000 BTU window air conditioning unit.

“Even when my AC is running, we’re turning the meter backward. It’s a great thing,” Scarlet said.

The harvesting system project wasn’t cheap, with a total cost of about $9,500. A $4,000 grant from the JRBP helped defray the cost, with those funds coming via a $400,000 Water Quality Improvement Project grant from the Environmental Resources Coalition in 2006.

“It’ll probably be one of my slower returns – and it may never return – but it’s still the right thing to do,” Scarlet said.

 “I really like having the water right here and not having to worry about if the water bill goes up. I can water my garden, and it doesn’t have to be every other day because I have my cistern,” he added.

Scarlet has no plans to make his harvesting system design available to other homeowners, as the systems must be individually designed to fit a given site. The amended codes – which he helped bring about – indicate what’s acceptable and what’s not, which will help other homeowners who are interested in the system.

JRBP’s Frey said the cost of the Scarlets’ home collection system was higher than what other homeowners might face.

“I would say there are ways to bring that cost down a little bit,” Frey said, though she noted that cost probably isn’t the overriding reason to decide whether to tackle such a project.

She pointed to Third World countries where potable water is scarce. “If you told them we take our drinkable water and flush it down the toilet … they would be horrified,” she said.

That’s a sentiment Scarlet understands.

“I really don’t like peeing in drinking water. I don’t think it makes sense,” he said. “And water is delivered any time it rains for free.”

For him, cost is a factor in using the rainwater harvesting system and other sustainable practices. “It’s like our solar electric system. It’s saving us money every month for the next 25 years. It’s not only the right thing to do. I’m cheap. I want to be able to afford electricity when I’m 85,” he said.