As America’s expanding urban areas struggle with major water supply
shortages and runoff pollution problems, capturing rainwater from
rooftops provides a tremendous untapped opportunity to increase water
supply and improve water quality, according to a recent analysis on Capturing Rainwater from Rooftops by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
In its report, NRDC demonstrates the benefits and potential of
rooftop rainwater capture, a “green infrastructure” practice that can be
used to retain stormwater runoff on-site, by analyzing ways in which
eight diverse U.S. cities could incorporate this simple water collection
approach. By comparing annual rainfall totals to rooftop coverage, NRDC
determined that opportunities exist in each city to capture hundreds of
millions of gallons of rainfall every year for reuse. By doing so,
residents of these communities would obtain inexpensive onsite water
supplies for non-potable uses, such as yard watering and toilet
flushing, reduce runoff pollution, and would lower energy costs
associated with treating and delivering drinkable-quality water.
