Supporting Community Water Harvesting Efforts: Impact of Water Harvesting on Street Runoff Quantity and Quality

Abstract

Water Resource planners in Arizona are increasingly focused on identifying and using all available sources of water. In large portions of the state, harvested rainwater has the potential to replace a significant portion of potable water use, especially for landscape irrigation. Our project aims to develop a water harvesting demonstration site at the Nature Conservancy in Tucson, Arizona with corresponding educational outreach programs and tools. This includes a web-based cistern sizing tool to help users determine the optimal volume to meet their individual goals and constraints. Additionally, the project aims to quantify the differences in water quality between the cistern, first flush device and street runoff through the collection of series of event-driven samples. Water quality results indicate potential concerns with lead, aluminum, iron, total dissolved solids, biological oxygen demand and E. Coli. The data series supports the use of first flush devices and street runoff in moderately urban areas.