Did you know we’re running out of ground water in Texas while almost everyone living west of I 35 in the Austin area relies on it to live here? Did you also know all of the solutions to mitigate this problem are at our fingertips should we choose to implement them at scale?

Here’s how we turn the water problem around. Every new building gets a big raintank. Every existing building that can easily have a raintank added gets one. In some cases having 1 large raintank catching off of multiple buildings would be most efficient. This not only creates way more water availability, it creates a slow draw and slow release effect after each rain because we would stop needing to draw on aquifers while tanks are full and as that water gets used it slowly goes back into the ground over time, heading towards the aquifer instead of running off during a big storm. This would also help with destructive flooding patterns that cost millions in bridge repairs etc. Plants prefer rainwater to well water so it's better for irrigation use BUT, we should really use it more than once so I would advocate for using it as potable water and then having a system that harvests it for re-use.

Landscapes can be maximized to slow, spread and sink or infiltrate storm water run off. We do this with rain gardens, berms, brush berms, rock berms, keyline plowing, increased vegetation cover and general soil building activity. Healthy soils, covered in deep rooted vegetation in-soak and hold way more water than bare, thin soils. Every patch of soil is like a natural raintank if we manage it for water receptivity and holding capacity. Working with soil in this way has myriad benefits. It’s good for the plants, good for wildlife, good for humans, even good for the microbes and it helps to recharge aquifers while preventing flooding and erosion.

We could also stop irrigating things that don't really make sense in this context anymore. Saint Augustine lawns come to mind. Golf courses. These could be seeded in with Thunderturf and or wildflowers, to reduce water needs and maintenance drastically. While we're at it, lets rotationally graze them instead of mowing!

We can also design and install our septic systems to reuse all of our grey and black water for landscape irrigation as we’ve done on our house build project.

The only question is will we adopt these strategies soon enough?

#texas #water #rain #symbiosis #permaculture #waterislife #soil #groundwater #build #raintank

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