Wide Open Spaces

BY DEBORAH PADDISON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TERRENCE MOORE

>>> Forgotten Rain: Heather Kinkade-Levario, Phoenix, Arizona

Talk about "an inconvenient truth": According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, large areas of the West—Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and portions of Montana—currently are experiencing conditions ranging from abnormally dry to severe drought.

While Heather Kinkade-Levario can't make it rain, she can help landscape architects and their clients make every drop count. A registered landscape architect in Phoenix, Arizona, Kinkade-Levario is an enthusiastic proponent of rainwater catchment and current president of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA).

"The more we can collect rainwater and reuse it, the less we will have to draw from groundwater and the more sustainable our landscapes can be," she says. In fact, she's so passionate about the subject that she wrote, designed and self-published a book, Forgotten Rain: Rediscovering Rainwater Harvesting, which received the Communications Award of Honor at the national 2006 ASLA Professional Awards, as well as a similar award from the Arizona chapter of ASLA. Directed toward both landscape architects and the public, Forgotten Rain educates the reader about rainwater harvesting and the components of catchment systems, providing case studies and resources.

"It's time to wake up and realize we have a natural resource that is slowly being depleted—fresh water—and we need to start to take care of it and the natural cycles that maintain it," she says in describing the book's message.

Something More

So how do you go from a newly minted landscape architect to an expert on rainwater catchment systems and a published author? Kinkade-Levario earned her bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Arizona, followed by a master's in environmental planning. She had been doing land-use planning and designing landscapes for pavement-heavy commercial projects such as car dealerships when she realized something was missing.

For the Biodesign Institute research facility at Arizona State University in Tempe, landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck, FASLA, incorporated a 4.5-acre garden that harvests rainwater and future condensate. A sculptural river-rock irrigation seep is a focal point.

"I wasn't really doing anything to benefit the environment," she recalls. "Here I was a landscape architect, and I felt I needed to justify that title by doing work that was more environmentally friendly and ethically fulfilling."

Looking for ideas, she came across something about rainwater collection for irrigation. The topic really intrigued her—here was a way, she felt, that landscape architects could have a truly positive impact. In addition to irrigating landscapes, "Harvested rainwater can be used the same way any non-potable water can be used, including to flush toilets, wash vehicles or spray off surfaces. Also, with proper filtering, you can use recycled rainwater in air-conditioning units," Kinkade-Levario explains.

There are various ways to collect rainwater from roofs and direct it where you want it to go. A simple passive rainwater-harvesting system may consist of gutters and downspouts on a house, where the water is being collected from the roof and directed down to a tree, or a group of shrubs or a particular landscape area. "Or you can attach that gutter to a pipe and store the water underground, or you can cut the gutter off and attach it to a rain barrel," Kinkade-Levario says. An active rainwater-catchment system goes a few steps further, adding a storage tank, pump and filtration. These systems range from the simple to the complex. "The possibilities are limitless," she says.

When water is relatively cheap, it takes longer for an active water-collection system to pay for itself, Kinkade-Levario says. But the days of cheap and plentiful water—particularly here in the West—are not going to last. There's something empowering about having your own water supply. Wells run dry, groundwater can be contaminated by arsenic or other heavy metals, rural towns may limit the number of households or businesses per year that can tap into the local water system, and large municipal water systems can experience problems.

By harvesting rainwater, Kinkade-Levario says, "If you don't want chlorine or fluoride in your water, you don't have to put it in. You can filter the water to whatever degree you want." There are no minerals in rainwater— no lime, sulfur, rust or sodium—making it naturally soft.

Integral to Sustainable Landscapes

Kinkade-Levario's tremendous effort in self-publishing Forgotten Rain attracted the interest of a publisher in Canada, New Society Publishers. They published her second book, called Design for Water, this spring. It revisits Forgotten Rain but also moves beyond rainwater into other areas, such as passive storm-water collection, graywater collection, collecting condensate from air conditioners, collecting water from fog (it's done with a net) and rainwater collection for wildlife. Case studies feature diverse water-collection systems, including those in single-family residences, apartment buildings, retail and industrial spaces, and schools and universities. Even entire subdivisions are harvesting rainwater using group catchment.

A "bio-sponge" of river rock and native plant materials captures rainwater and allows it to percolate back into the earth.

"Basically everything I couldn't fit into my first book I put in this one," says Kinkade-Levario with a laugh. "I wanted to create a really comprehensive resource so that anyone who is interested in designing or installing one of these systems has all the information they need."

Many landscape architects are embracing rainwater harvesting and making it an integral component in the sustainable landscape. LEED points are awarded for catching and reusing rainwater, and for any kind of alternate, non-municipal water that goes into a project.

"If nothing else, landscape architects should incorporate all appropriate passive techniques to collect and infiltrate rainwater and storm water. It should be an automatic part of the practice," Kinkade-Levario says, adding that landscape architects can encourage awareness among other architects and engineers they work with.

Kinkade-Levario is currently working on her Ph.D. and will be one of the first to earn a Certificate in Sustainable Technology and Management from the new Arizona State University School of Sustainability. She's also researching the urban hydrological cycle, devising ways to capture rainwater and alternate water and reuse it so we draw less from the groundwater supply, as well as focusing on urban vegetation to mitigate the heat-island effect.

When Heather Kinkade-Levario first started out in landscaping, she wanted her work to mean something more. She's accomplished that goal, and shown how being a landscape architect can mean helping the world.

Heather Kinkade-Levario, Phoenix, AZ, (602) 550-9316. For more on rainwater collection or to order Forgotten Rain: Rediscovering Rainwater Harvesting, visit www.forgottenrain.com. Design for Water is available directly from the author or through New Society Publishers, www.newsociety.com.