Atlanta Reviews Recycling Rainwater for Potable Uses

As reported in the Sunday Paper
Water independence

Facing higher water bills, a resident pursues rainwater use. And the City of Atlanta takes a pioneering step in sustainability.

By Mark Woolsey

     A meeting last week at Atlanta City Hall may enable residents to reduce their reliance on the City’s water system. But some important technical and logistical hurdles remain. At issue is the city’s first rainwater catchment system built for potable residential use. Potable means water for drinking, showering, food preparation and kitchen use, as opposed to non-potable systems for laundry, flushing toilets and lawn-watering. The city already has some of the latter, non-potable systems, in place.

    The roughly $15,000 system of two 1,700 gallon tanks, pumps and filtration equipment constructed for Mary Stouffer's Virginia-Highland home has been complete since February, but has yet to be permitted by the City of Atlanta. Last week, all the parties involved attended an informational tutorial aimed at city plumbing inspectors, the Bureau of Buildings, and the Planning Department.

   “We were able to get into a candid discussion about what works and what doesn’t work in other jurisdictions,” says Mandy Mahoney, the City’s sustainability director. “We are still at the information-gathering stage. The rainwater guys would like to be moving yesterday, but we have got to be thoughtful and deliberative about our policies.”

   One of those “rainwater guys” is Bob Drew, the Founder of ECOVIE Rainwater Collection Systems, who built Stouffer’s system. He and others say this is the first system in the city aiming for official governmental approval, although they suspect other “bootleg” potable systems have already been operating.

    “This is a collaborative process. It’s not antagonistic,” Drew says of the meeting that brought together Drew, city officials and the president of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association, plus a microbiologist who has worked with the group, to explain how such rainwater rigs work in other parts of the country.

    Drew has worked with Cumming-based RainHarvest Systems, a supplier of rainwater catchment components, which last year tried to get official blessing for a rainwater-trapping system for a local craft brewer, but problems arose with the lack of technical standards or a permitting process.

   “We tried to get a state permit to operate a public water system with rainwater as the source,” says Russell Jackson, the firm’s sales director. “The Environmental Protection Division grants the permits and they didn’t have the authority to recognize rainwater as a potable source of water. Right now we are working with the City to permit residential systems. We have backed off the commercial.”

    But city officials have found a state law passed a couple of years ago allowing rainwater collection for commercial and residential non-potable use. They’ve also found that local jurisdictions have the authority to regulate potable use upon getting permission from the state Department of Community Affairs.

     So as the city was getting its permission letter from DCA, Drew was tying the Stouffers’ downspouts into their filtration system. Now the family of five, including three kids, is awaiting the official OK to proceed with establishing a degree of independence from the Dept. of Watershed Management. (The city water supply would function as a backup.)

     Mary Stouffer says last year’s drought, coupled with Atlanta’s dependence on Lake Lanier, brought to mind her Florida childhood. In Florida, she says, “you could tap into aquifers, which is one thing, but being here and dependent on a lake makes you feel differently. The drought put the seed in my head that water is not a renewable resource.”

    The Stouffers are currently using their system to water their lawn. 

“And we have tested it inside and it works just fine,” says Stouffer. Once fully operational, she expects to recoup the $15,000 investment within 12 years, while mostly avoiding City of Atlanta water rates, which are already high and poised to go higher: another 12.5 percent hike is planned for next year.

  Not only is the City of Atlanta raising water rates to pay for its $4 billion sewer upgrade, a federal judge last year ruled that the city must reduce its use of drinking water to 1970s levels within three years, because Lake Lanier was never intended for that purpose. About 3 million residents in the metro area get their water from Lanier.

    Drew and other experts say a proactive rainwater collection system could reduce Atlanta’s daily water demand by 50 million to 100 million gallons a day. He says that would cover 25 percent to 50 percent of the expected shortfall of 200 million gallons from Lake Lanier, if the judge’s ruling stands.

    But there are some things to be done first.

    One is an ordinance that would set up plumbing codes, guidelines and technical standards for potable rainwater use, but Mahoney says it’s premature to discuss them at this point.

    Another issue is the cost of treating the excess water once it enters the city’s wastewater facilities. Mahoney says some cities charge residents for such services while others don’t. Currently, Atlanta water and sewer charges are assessed based on metering when city water enters a home. Clearly, a different approach would have to be used for homes that don’t use city water.

    “I would be a proponent of people not paying any sewer or water charge if they’ve taken the bold step of using rainwater for drinking water,” says Drew.