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Harvest and save rainwater for dry spells.
This is a locally owned and operated small business,
installing affordable and efficient rainwater catchment systems.
Even with the heavy rainfalls of the end of January and all of February of this year (2009), San Francisco East Bay reserviors are holding only 2/3's of their capacity. The managers of the East Bay Municipal Utility District estimate that we would need 40 more inches of rain by April to come out of the current drought. It has become critical enough that on February 27th, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared there to be a state wide drought emergency.
If you lived in an average San Francisco East Bay home of 1,200 square feet that was equipped with a rainwater catchment system during the storms of February 11th thru the 15th, you could have harvested approximately 3,000 gallons of rainwater. 
You could then use that water until the next rains, when your catchment system would again capture more rainwater. Even during this year's predicted half of normal rainfall, you could harvest 8,600+ gallons of water.
Your home already has 3 of the basic elements of a rainwater catchment system: a roof, rain gutters, and downspouts. Add a few more elements like a cistern for storage or a filtration system to clean and purify the harvested rainwater and you have an environmentally sound way of collecting rainwater. Visit our FAQ page to find out all the benefits of rainwater catchment.
Rainwater catchment is a simple time tested solution to the crisis caused by the "worst drought in California's recorded history". Rainwater harvesting not only serves you and your property in a fundamental way, it also reduces the depletion of the reservoirs that serve the San Francisco East Bay. With mandated water restrictions that will become more severe as time passes, harvesting and storing rainwater is simply a common sense approach to a long term problem.
With the Sierra Mountain snow packs becoming smaller, reservoir levels receding, and its grounds parched, Californians can no longer simply rely on our overtaxed natural resources. California was an arid area before the first European set foot here. U.S. government topography maps label virtually everything West of the Rocky Mountains as arid (one aspect of the definition of arid pertains to the time between rainfalls). And, now with climate change we can see a future in which how we use and where we get water will determine our quality of life and those of future generations.
Just how bad is it right now? On February 20th the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources announced that little or no water would be available for California farmers this year. The implications of this announcement are staggering.
And, the problem of water scarcity is not limited to California.
Six months ago Scientific American published its August 2008 issue with the main article addressing global water shortages. Unfortunately, the article's solutions are left to slow moving governmental agencies that will have little immediate impact without the broader and active assistance of the earth's human population.
Rainwater harvesting has been used by humanity for thousands of years… one can still see functioning systems throughout the world (Greece, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Spain immediately come to mind). Currently, many American states are offering incentives to install rainwater catchment systems on older homes and mandating systems on new construction. Rainwater collection is being done in Ohio, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Hawaii... these are a few of the states encouraging residents to add a system to their homes to meet dwindling fresh water resources. With modern materials and technological advances rainwater harvesting has become viable in the modern urban setting. In May of 2008 the San Francisco Chronicle printed an article entitled "Tips on capturing rainwater" detailing how rainwater collection systems were being encouraged and built in the City.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Building Inspection have come together to encourage the use of rainwater catchment. To visit the PUC's web site just click here.
It is now very clear that water conservation entails more than wise use of our fresh water. Harvesting rainwater is the proactive step that supports a sustainable present and future. With all this in mind I started a company devoted to serving the needs of my friends, neighbors, and community.
