*Water Management is a practice that involves a lot of criteria. Collection methods can have tainted water, but systems are used to collect pure rainwater that can be used to benefit your landscape.
April is a bountiful month that brings out the rubber boots, rain showers, and seasonal blooms. It’s also a great time to have a conversation about rainwater collection.
There are many states that regulate how, where, when, and why residents may harvest rainwater. Virginia is one of them, Maryland is not. So, at Chapel Valley Landscaping Company, our water management & commercial irrigation team takes into account those differences when performing work for clients in those respective areas.
For example, in Virginia, there are strict guidelines on which catchment surfaces may be utilized in rainwater harvesting systems. The guidelines were established to address the natural acidity and man-made impurities that often find their way into the state’s rainwater.
As such, rooftop capture systems generally do not include asphalt shingles and toxic tars. Instead, they traditionally rely on slate or metal. Slate and metal roofs have several things going for them in terms of water management utilization.
They are non-porous, non-toxic, flat materials that facilitate water flow with minimal loss, and zero leachings. Thus, the rainwater that lands into the collection system will be fairly pure but not pristine. After all, there are many things in the natural environment that may potentially foul rainwater too. That’s why some water management systems also employ what’s known as pretreatment devices (e.g. first flush diverters). Of course, removing natural impurities will not alter the water’s acidity.
Scientists widely put the acidic level of rainwater at around 5.0 or slightly less. So it is not harmful but will obviously help alter the pH level of some other materials it comes into contact with (e.g. potting soil). Understandably, that will need to be taken into account when deciding what to do with the harvested rainwater. To learn more about rainwater collection and the finer points of water management systems available in our area, please contact us at Chapel Valley Landscaping Company today.