May 4, 2011
Community Resource and Recreation Center of Canyon Lake was selected as one of the winners of the Texas Water Development Board Rain Catcher Award for 2010. IWS designed and installed the rainwater harvesting system for this project.
The rainwater harvesting system at the Community Resource and Recreation Center of Canyon Lake was built primarily to meet a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requirement to control increased stormwater flow resulting from an expansion of impervious cover at the site. Instead of building a detention pond, the Center with the help of the Comal County Engineer’s Office and Innovative Water Solutions LLC decided to install a rainwater harvesting system.
Rainwater flowing off of the 8,400-square-foot roof of the gymnasium at the site is collected into a 12,500-gallon fiberglass tank, retained there for 12 hours and released to an existing drainage swale within 72 hours, as stipulated by TCEQ. To make even better use of the harvested rainwater in the future, the Center is planning to install a landscape irrigation system.
This system is an excellent example of one of the more unheralded benefits of rainwater harvesting, namely controlling stormwater flow.
About the Rain Catcher Awards
The Texas Rain Catcher Award is a rainwater harvesting competition and recognition program established October 1, 2007, by the Texas Water Development Board to promote technology, educate the public, and to recognize excellence in the application of rainwater harvesting systems in Texas.