The Sycamore Springs Elementary / Middle School of the Dripping Springs ISD received the 2017 Rain Catcher Award from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) for the Educational/Governmental – School category.
The TWDB’s Texas Rain Catcher Award recognizes excellence in the application of rainwater harvesting systems in Texas, promotes rainwater harvesting technology, and educates the public on this important water-saving practice.
The school was designed by Huckabee Architects and it was constructed by Lee Lewis Construction. Innovative Water Solutions LLC constructed the rainwater harvesting systems and was proud to have been part of this great project.
About the Rainwater Harvesting Systems
The Dripping Springs ISD (DSISD) opened the new Sycamore Springs Elementary / Middle School for the 2017-2018 school year. Sycamore Springs Elementary is the fourth elementary school in DSISD. It will be home to nearly 800 students in Grades PK-5. The opening of Sycamore Springs Middle School marks the first time in district history that students will be attending two different middle schools in DSISD. It will be home to 850 students in Grades 6-8. While the two schools will operate separately from each other, they were located on a shared 50-acre site in order to gain efficiency of resources such as a shared kitchen.
The schools employ three separate rainwater harvesting systems. Two of the systems are used to supply water for toilet and urinal flushing while the third system is used to supply irrigation water.
Each rainwater harvesting system that supplies water for toilet flushing is comprised of a 15,000 gallon corrugated metal cistern, a 500 gallon day tank, sand filter system, an UV disinfection system, and a variable speed pump system. Each system harvests rainwater from approximately 10,000 sf. Therefore, each toilet flushing system has the potential to harvest approximately 200,000 gallons of rainwater during an average year of rainfall for Dripping Springs. Each system has a municipal water auto-fill system that maintains a minimum level of water in the cisterns at all times. This ensures the system can operate the toilets and urinals during all times of the school year.
The system pumps rainwater from the storage cistern through a sand filter and the UV disinfection system prior to storing the rainwater in a 500 gallon day tank. When a toilet or urinal is flushed, the variable speed pump system turns on to pull rainwater from the day tank to supply the toilet/urinal.
The rainwater harvesting system that supplies water for the irrigation system is comprised of a 10,000 gallon corrugated metal cistern, a recirculating pump with a sand filter to filter the rainwater inside the cistern, and a variable speed pump system to pump the rainwater into the irrigation system. This system harvests rainwater from approximately 8,000 sf and has the potential to harvest approximately 160,000 gallons of rainwater during an average year of rainfall. This system also has a municipal water auto-fill system that maintains a minimum level of water in the cistern at all times.
The recirculating pump system is set on a timer to pull rainwater from the storage cistern, filter it through the sand filter, and then pumps it back to the storage cistern. A different variable speed pump will pull rainwater from the storage cistern when the irrigation system is activated.
Toilet flushing is typically a high water use category for a school. Using rainwater for flushing toilets and urinals is a perfect opportunity to greatly reduce the demand for municipal water in a school.
The school is located at 14451 Sawyer Ranch Road, Austin, Texas 78737.
The TWDB awards five Rain Catcher Awards each year. The 2017 recipients were innovative rainwater harvesting systems.
The award ceremony can be watched on the TWDB Board meeting video. The ceremony begins at the 1:01:00 mark in the video.
About the TWDB Rain Catcher Award Program
The Texas Rain Catcher Award competition began in 2007 and is open to all individuals, companies, organizations, municipalities, and other local and state governmental entities in Texas. It recognizes entities and individuals in the rainwater harvesting community and beyond and establishes award recipients as dedicated water conservation leaders in Texas.
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