Harvested Rainwater Progression

Author: Christina M. Brenckman, Rainwater Irrigation Group

​Hello everybody! Welcome back to the Springstone Farm Blog! My name is Christina and I am an Environmental Biology major at Kean. As already stated in the introduction, we are working with Springstone to create a system that will harvest rainwater to be used to irrigate flowers and crops rather than using well water. Our approach to the aforementioned is to provide the client with a cost-effective method to collect, store, and pump harvested rainwater to the backfield where the crops reside.

Last week we met with farmer Joe to discuss further progression and visualize the system already in place. Moving forward we decided it was best to lay cement as a base for the totes--which will be collecting the rainwater-- to ensure they are entirely level. We will then be removing the gap between the two gutters to ensure they are all level as well. Our initial plan was to create a mechanism where a water pump would be wired to an ATV battery. However, now we are looking into mechanisms that will attach the system directly to an outlet or set up to a solar panel. We look forward to continuing our work with Joe to ensure this project is entirely sustainable and efficient. Harvesting rainwater is a significant step toward the pursuit of preserving high quality, clean water for the well being of future generations (Fink, Ehler, 1983), and we couldn’t be more excited to be apart of it!

Reference:
Fink, D. H., & Ehrler, W. L. (1983). Runoff Farming for Growing Christmas Trees. Soil Science
Society of America Journal, 47(5), 983.