Cisterns save rainwater, quench environmental thirst (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Gabe Ramirez
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Andy Lipkis was 15 years old on the first Earth Day in 1970 -- the year he says he realized what his calling in life would be.

Three years later, Lipkis and his teenage friends would found the non-profit, community-based organization known as TreePeople. Based in Los Angeles, California, the environmental organization's primary purpose has been to educate communities on the planting and care of trees and to work with government agencies on issue No. 1 in the West: water.

Exploding populations from Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, to suburban Los Angeles have turned the issue of water supply from problem to crisis. "The way we use water is so wasteful and so inappropriate today, according to the California Water Plan, there is already so much demand for water, it already exceeds supply," says Lipkis.

And human consumption isn't the only problem, because as cities grow, so does the amount of pavement and concrete that seals the natural watersheds. That in turn prevents rainwater from refreshing underground aquifers, nature's water tanks. And rainwater is exactly what Lipkis is hoping people will start to think about.

Right now, building codes in Los Angeles County, as in most parts of the country, require rainwater to be moved from rooftops to the street. As a result, even in mostly sunny southern California, a massive amount of water gets flushed into storm drains every year.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/17/gsif.rainwater.solutions/

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. There are also legal issues with water rights in the west

And they are a big frigging deal out here.

[kestrel91316]

2. CO recently made some progress by allowing limited rainwater harvesting

for homes with wells.

IMHO it should be REQUIRED throughout the dryer parts of the country.