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Garden Club sez: Need Water? Use Rainwater!
by: Mike Mecke
Water Programs Specialist
Ft. Stockton Extension Center, Airport Rd.
As water is always such a major issue in West Texas and Pecos County, I decided to adapt the following news release from a Dallas-area Garden Club for the Pioneer. Fort Stockton's Garden Club, which I am proud to be a member of, also is very aware of and involved with rainwater harvesting. Heck, Ft. Stockton and West Texas were doing rainwater catching since this country was first settled. Several local members are in the planning stage for home rain capture as a result of several past club meetings (open to the public by the way) and Pioneer news articles on this topic. Good water? Yep, just watch how your plants thrive on the free, pure, nitrogen-fixed rainwater made somewhere between Heaven and earth!
Tank sizes can run from 55 gallon barrels to 60,000 gallon tanks and everything in-between! For most landscapes a 2,000 to 3,000 gallon tank works great and doesn't cost an arm and a leg - maybe $600 to $1,200, maybe including installation if that is what you choose. Uses run from landscape irrigation - the most common use, to drinking, wildlife water, livestock water to fire protection. Many cities are now looking at capturing and using stormwater runoff and putting it to a good use rather than being a problem. A new school in Menard is using 60,000 gals. from their roof to flush all toilets in the building!
Fort Stockton has a historic building with an old rain cistern that is functioning - go look at the metal tank on the rear patio of the Gray Mule. There are a number of new sites already in place and others are planned for Ozona, Marfa, Sanderson and El Paso. Our local county hospital is also planning to install a system. The Fort Stockton Chamber of Commerce will be fitted out with a rainwater capture system this summer as well, which fits in great with the beautiful new native plant gardens they have recently had installed by a local plant nursery. Nearby, the Monahans 4H building now has a rainwater cistern, as does the Van Horn Courthouse, Odessa-Midland Recycling Center and the Sierra Blanca Extension office. Rainbarrels are now in place at the Alpine Library and the Ft. Davis Water District office. A major stormwater capture project which collects rain runoff from McDonald Observatory's Visitor Center, now has 20,000 gallons especially for fire fighting at the Observatory (future plans are for more water tanks for landscape irrigation and fire protection). The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute near Ft. Davis has two roof collection systems and a stand-alone wildlife guzzler on the rangeland behind their Visitor Center. Take a weekend tour and look at these various sites, see how one might fit your needs. If interested get in touch with your local county Cooperative Extension office.
Now let's take a look at a shortened version of what another garden club is doing with rainwater capture. Remember, it may be too late to catch the rain if you wait till the next drought hits! So do it now!
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