Next week marks the beginning of “Rainwater Harvesting Awareness Week,” an annual event organized by the South Plains Underground Water Conservation District (SPUWCD) to raise awareness about the importance of harvesting rainwater.
Did you know that less than 1% of the world’s water is freshwater that is accessible? This resource is vital for our environment. The Ogallala Aquifer, which serves as Terry County’s primary source of underground water, is experiencing significant depletion due to overuse, particularly for irrigation, compounded by a natural recharge rate that is slower than the rate of water extraction. This situation is particularly concerning in the High Plains region, where the aquifer is essential for agriculture, which heavily relies on irrigation.
Currently, more than 200,000 wells draw water from the eight-state area of the Ogallala, which stretches from the Panhandle to the far South Plains of Texas, eastern New Mexico, the Panhandle of Oklahoma, western and central Kansas, eastern Colorado, most of Nebraska, southeastern Wyoming, and part of southern South Dakota. These wells extract water at a rate of 3 to 50 times faster than the aquifer’s semiarid recharge zone can replenish. Terry County alone has over 9,600 wells, representing about 4.8% of the total. In the 1950s, farmers believed the Ogallala groundwater was limitless; however, the water table has since dropped by 100–200 feet in some areas, indicating serious depletion, especially where it is thinner in the South. Moreover, fertilizer and industrial chemicals have led to pollution in some sections of the Ogallala aquifer.
Historically, rainwater harvesting was a common method for early Texas settlers to provide water, primarily captured in cisterns. Roof-based rainwater harvesting, as the name suggests, involves collecting rainwater runoff from roof surfaces. This captured rainwater is typically used for landscape irrigation, although some systems are designed to treat the rainwater for potable use inside homes.
In 2014, the SPUWCD installed its own rainwater harvesting system, which consists of two 550-gallon storage tanks. The roof area of the barn is 608 square feet. Approximately 365 gallons of rainwater can be captured from a one-inch rainfall event, with the average annual rainfall in our area totaling 17.5 inches.
A notable feature of the SPUWCD’s system is the first-flush pipe. The initial water runoff from the roof fills this pipe, effectively clearing dirt and other contaminants from the roof. Once the pipe is full, the clean water flows into the storage tanks.
At the same time the SPUWCD installed the rainwater harvesting system, a xeriscape garden was established. This garden features plants that require less water. After the plants became established, they have been watered almost entirely with the stored rainwater. The garden, which also includes a pollinator house, has transformed into a beautiful sanctuary for bees and butterflies.
