Cisterns and Stormwater
[caption id="attachment_206" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Rainwater collection system at Northside Family Learning Center, Richmond, VA"][/caption] Cisterns make sense, why not use stormwater as resource and reduce the demand on potable water supply systems. I have successfully designed cistern systems, I encourage the use of cisterns, and I look forward to the standardized methodology to calculate benefits in the proposed regulations http://www.vwrrc.vt.edu/swc/NonProprietaryBMPs.html . However, I feel that there are some misconceptions about cisterns that need to be addressed: If the cistern is used only for irrigation, then the cistern does nothing for reducing stormwater impacts in the 6 or 7 months out of the year when there is no irrigation. Cisterns used solely for irrigation need to overflow to another measure, such as bioretention. Is there a stormwater benefit for a measure that works for only half of the year Rainfall is unpredictable. In the last ten years in Richmond, the annual rainfall varied by...
Continue Reading