Back in the day, as "they" say, it was more common than not for folks to collect their rainwater and use it for a variety of tasks. A barrel at the end of the rainspout could collect enough to water the vegetables, while a larger, sealed concrete or wooden cistern could handle more of the household's water needs.

In old Western movies, cowboys would collect rainwater to bath with and do dishes, and I'm sure there had to be episodes where Laura Ingalls or the Waltons used rainwater for one thing or another.

The concept has been in existence for thousands of years. "Years ago, people had cisterns in Lancaster County," said Michael Stark, owner and system designer of Stark Environmental, 166 Locust St., Columbia. "We kind of got away from that, though."

Stark said old cement cisterns didn't always have the means to keep the water clean, and the pump that moved water from the cistern was often noisy and in the basement.

More recently, with increased awareness surrounding environmental issues and the push for "green" construction, harvesting rainwater has increased on a more modern and less labor-intensive scale.

Working with about 10 Lancaster County Career & Technology Center plumbing students, Curt Gibble, the plumbing instructor at Brownstown's tech center branch, installed a rainwater harvesting system designed to fit the needs of the new green-build home in Mount Joy.

"One of our goals with this overall green-build project is to manage storm water effectively, and remain in compliance with the codes by keeping as much of the water on-site as possible," said Stark. Retention basins are used for storm water management in many modern developments but need to be maintained.

At the Mount Joy house, there are two tanks with a combined capacity of 3,500 gallons. The environmental project consultant and system designer said the system was sized to service the outside hydrants, cold water for the washing machine and the toilets, based on the local rainfall amounts. The entire system costs an estimated $10,000 to $12,000, for everything including excavation, the tanks, pumps, block, plumbing and installation of the system.

On a pure payback scale, Stark said, it's a long-term investment. But he believes the gap between water savings and system cost will begin to close as the years go by because the cost of electricity and the expense of treating water will increase, raising the cost per gallon of potable, municipal water.

He added that there are few things in a building project that have the ability to be practically a lifetime investment.

"There is practically nothing with the tanks to go bad, and they're the biggest expense of an underground (rainwater harvesting) system," he said.

Once rainwater harvesting becomes more popular, Stark added, jobs in that sector will pick up, and the systems' cost will decrease. Some American municipalities actually offer incentives to promote the use of rainwater systems.

LEVELS OF HARVESTING

Underground systems and those that involve upper-floor fixtures are more expensive, but there are other, more affordable options to offset public water usage. A system designer would be able to tailor a system to almost any need and situation.

Although new construction lends itself to using non-potable rainwater throughout the house, existing homes might be better suited to a rainwater harvesting system for fixtures or appliances that are in the basement or are easily accessible for installing any separate plumbing that's needed.

Some existing homes use the harvested rainwater for outside watering, car washing, supplementing swimming pools and filling hot tubs. "Even if you weren't able to make a tie in to the inside of the house, you could derive a great deal of use from outside hydrants that use the rainwater or non-potable water," Stark said.

He noted the average consumption of water per day per American is 70 to 100 gallons. If a household could use rainwater for the toilets, outdoor needs averaged over a 12-month period and laundry, it would cut potable or treated water use by 50 percent.

An added bonus is that rainwater is soft water and doesn't need conditioning. Collecting rainwater also reduces storm water runoff pollution, which occurs when rainwater that is directed into storm drains picks up pollutants along the way.

"Nature is the best provider anyway," said Stark, who explained that from an environmental standpoint, using treated, chlorinated water is bad for lawns and plant life. "The worst thing you can do for your plants is use chlorinated water. Chlorine is put into water to kill bacteria, and it kills both good and bad bacteria, which in turn kills the soil and the plant material.

"All in all, however, (rainwater is) good for the planet."

HOW IT WORKS

The collection tanks are buried in the Mount Joy project's front lawn, which makes them invisible. "To separate the city water from the rainwater, we put in a maniblock system in the basement," said Gibble of the LCCTC. All water lines run back to the maniblock, which Gibble compared to the breaker box that separates electrical lines throughout a house.

"That does require a lot more plumbing, but it allows us to isolate the rainwater system from the domestic supply," he said. " There is no chance of cross-contamination because the two can never mix together."

White piping for rainwater comes into the lower half of the maniblock. Red pipes carry hot water supply lines and potable city water is carried by blue supply lines, according to Gibble.

Rainwater travels from the roof through downspouts to an underground piping system, which leads to the tanks. A scrubber removes any debris that might wash off the roof. From the tanks, according to Gibble, there is a pump with a censor valve in the house. When the rainwater is called for, the pumps come on and release water into and through the block system, traveling through a final filter.

If for some reason drought conditions set in and the tanks are empty, the tanks will be backfilled with domestic water as needed. There is also a meter that monitors tank capacity, and an overflow pipe moves excess rainwater into a storm water placement area.

E-mail: rmcroberts@lnpnews.com