Conserving Runoff

We sorely need a revitalization of the water conservation method utilized in the Midwest during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

Many houses had rain gutters surrounding the eaves and the rain water runoff was plumbed into an underground cistern. A small, filter-equipped hand pump to this water supply was located in the house near the kitchen sink. This cistern water was used for dish-washing and other cleaning.

It is amazing the amount of rainwater runoff that occurs even in a mild rain. During the latest rain in the Oxnard area, we filled every container available to us with the runoff from a small patio roof in a matter of just a few minutes.

With today’s modern technology, I’m sure an enterprising entrepreneur could install such a system for a private house more easily and less expensively than a swimming pool. It would result in a large savings of our rapidly diminishing supply of potable water.

H.E. (PAT) MULLVAIN

Oxnard