Catching rain, cutting costs: A drought-friendly fix for Big Country homes

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — The dog days of summer are knocking at our doors, and with the Big Country currently facing drought conditions, saving water will be crucial in the coming months. One proven way to help with water conservation is with rainwater collection systems. These systems are a simple and cheap way for homeowners to add to their water supply without feeling the sting of the bill later on.

Most rainwater collection systems consist of a simple 55-gallon plastic barrel attached to your home’s gutter or water runoff system, with a spigot added to the bottom for gravity flow access. Taylor County Ag Extension Agent Steve Estes spoke to the volume of water people might expect to collect off their roofs alone.

“For easy math, let’s say a 2,000 square foot roof and a one-inch rain. You could capture 1,200 gallons of water,” Estes shared.

Rainwater collection is heavily encouraged in the state of Texas, so much so that even supplies related to this activity are sales tax exempt. However, according to Estes, that’s not the only saving incentive. He also elaborated on how it can help with water reservoir levels when the hottest temperatures of the summer start dwindling that supply.

“For every gallon that someone could save, that’s a gallon saved down the road, even if you’re going to catch some water just to use water in your landscape or around your house. Certainly, it will save not only you in your pocket, but it’ll also save water for the whole city,” Estes explained.

This type of rainwater collection has significant benefits on large-scale operations as well. For example, the Taylor County Expo Center has an exceedingly large rainwater collection system that flows from gutters off their First Financial Pavilion, roughly two football fields in size, into four 10-thousand-gallon tanks for arena use. General Manager for the Taylor County Expo Center, Rochelle Johnson, explains how installing this collection system has helped them with the massive usage they need to operate.

“After one good rain, we can use these water tanks over several months,” Johnson said. “I looked at this when we were doing the renovations of the facility. We were using over 86,000 gallons of water just for the arenas a year. With these here, just eliminated that.”

If you are interested in adding a rainwater collection system to your home and need some help getting started, the Big Country Master Gardeners regularly partner with the City of Abilene to make a 55-gallon barrel rainwater collection system to provide to Abilene citizens.