Rain Harvesting at Sonoma Community Center

In last week's post, we mentioned the new water tank at the Sonoma Community Center and said we really think it would be great to see more people harvesting and storing water in Northern California.

Well, we could have gone on to toot our own horn a little as it turns out. Here at Boden Plumbing we're so enamored of this kind of thing that we donated our help in getting the tank plumbed and primed to deliver water to the Center's beautiful garden and landscape. And this week we've got a few more pictures to share showing the guys at work.

Boden Plumbing trucks onsite at Sonoma Community Center,
near the new 8,000-gallon water storage tank.

Randy and Rudy scoping things out. (Yeah, Randy. It's kind of high.)

Looks like they opted to get started on terra firma first.

And then decided Randy would go up the ladder.
Chris, Casey, Rudy and Randy (left to right)

One company donated the tank and the drain that will bring water off the roof and into the tank. Waldron Landscaping provided trenching to get the water distribution lines where they need to be onsite, and then we laid the lines and got everything hooked up and functioning.

A small pump will push water through the system. During the dry part of the year, City water will keep the tank topped up. And then when the rain is falling, there is an overflow mechanism that will let any excess water drain away across the parking lot as usual. There is also a metering system that will allow the folks at the community center to monitor just how much water they are saving by storing and using the winter rains.

So a pretty cool set-up. There are still a few details to take care of before it's tested and fully functioning, but we'll be very interested to find out how it works out. Hopefully it will inspire other people to try rain harvesting and storage.