A 3,000 Gallon RWH installation in the Village
The homeowners at this Carmel Valley Village residence are very conservation minded and wanted the ability to capture rainwater and use it in their yard. In this case they wanted "active" and "passive" rainwater harvesting. Active RWH refers to capturing rainwater in tanks and using it to irrigate or wash your car etc. Passive RWH refers to using rainwater, not stored in tanks, to infiltrate into the ground through bioswales. Bioswales allow the water to infiltrate and enhance the plant life around the area. In this case, excess water running through the tank overflow is elevated naturally back into the garden so no water is lost to runoff into storm drains. By far, this was the most interesting project we have done with the use of overflow water and we will follow it through the winter and spring to see what effects it has on the native plants in their beautiful garden. The homeowners also didn't want to see the pipes going into and out of the tanks from the view of their home. GSL buried the lines and took them to the fence side of the tanks to provide this element. One important note is the homeowners had a "Leaf Solution" gutter screen installed on top of their gutters. This is a fine mesh system that keeps out the most minute debris and is the most important part of a rainwater harvesting system providing high quality water entering the tanks.
Click on the following pictures to see a description of each.
