Very few people view rain as a viable source of drinking water. Rain really adds up fast. You might be shocked to see just how.

Here is a simple calculation:

·         0.559 x Square Feet of Surface x Inches of Rain = # of Gallons.

So let's apply that in the real world:

·         1 inch of rain falls on a 1 square mile area

o    The total volume of water would be 187.1 million gallons of water

·         The average person in the USA uses 100 gallons to maintain a basic lifestyle

o    That is a total of 36,500 gallons each year

Some pseudo environmentalists fear that rain water harvesting will hurt the environment. When you consider the sheer volume of water dumped each time that it rains you begin to understand how there is no threat.

This is what happens to the water when it rains:

·         30-35% of rainwater gets evaporated into the atmosphere annually

·         50-55% runs of into the salt oceans

o    The salt mixed into the rain water makes it complex to make potable and worthless to the ground water table, soil and crops

·         Less than 10% of the rain becomes moisture in the soil feeding vegetation

·         Less than 3% actually enters into and adds to the ground water

The fact is that rain comes down (generally) at a rate and volume far exceeding the ability of the surrounding environment to absorb and make use of. The result of the uncontrolled excess is erosion, destruction of habitats, flooding and more. That is why the best thing that can happen for the water table is a lot of snowfall. As the snow melts it slowly absorbs into the soil and is absorbed by plants, trees and other vegetation. A large amount of the snow melt actually ends up in the water table. There is little likelihood that you could ever build or afford the storage capacity to store rain water in an amount that would negatively impact the environment.