About four years ago, my husband and I bought Brad Lancaster’s Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1. The award-winning self-published book by the Dunbar Spring resident was a huge inspiration to my household. Over time, we have watched Tucson embrace the book’s principles; from local businesses and neighborhoods constructing earthworks to efficiently capture water to the installation of cisterns. We cheered as the city council, in 2008, voted to enact the nation’s first municipal mandate requiring new commercial developments harvest rain for landscaping. In our fair city of creative geniuses, it’s logical that the next phase of water collection tanks would be those constructed locally during community work parties and with an artistic flair.
Enter The Tucson Rain Jar Project. Formed in Feb 2009, the group’s goal was “to learn the techniques involved in creating a community-crafted, rainwater-harvesting cistern.” The website says: “We wanted to see if with minimal masonry skills, we could build our own water collection systems by hand. We wanted to discover if this could be a feasible, more sustainable alternative to pre-fabricated plastic and metal water tanks.” They are well underway; see Lee Gutowski’s article on the organization and its upcoming tour on Dec 12 here.
As we head into 2011, I’m hoping Tucson’s development continues to evolve with respect to environmental practices that embrace community needs, artistic panache and local history. We should and need to; I believe we can. The process can be tedious and straining, but worth it in the end. It’s a matter of staying involved. Please do.
