Calvin Kirkham points to the UV filter that kills the bacteria before the stored rain water is pumped into his home. The Kirkhams also use a composting toilet in their guest house to conserve water. (Photo by Wes Ferguson)
by WES FERGUSON
To conserve water, Jane Kirkham wanted a composting toilet.
Her husband, Calvin, wasn’t so sure.
This toilet would be no porcelain throne. Instead of a flush lever, it came with a hand crank. After taking care of one’s business, one then turned the crank several times to mix up the waste into a medley of sawdust and other absorbent material.
“It’s a little off-putting,” Jane admitted.
When the couple were building a guest cottage beside their house overlooking the Blanco River, they discussed not running septic lines to the new structure.
Jane won. She got her composting john.
Two years later, she’s philosophical about her time recycling her own bodily waste.
“I foolishly thought, ‘This is the way you should do things,’” she said. “Mmmmm, maybe not so much. There is nothing like a flush toilet.”
The Kirkhams – like many people around Kyle and Buda – have had much better luck harvesting rainwater. Among the many efforts to conserve water in homes, businesses and schools in Hays County, rainwater capture seems to be among the most popular.
Two massive storage tanks occupy space at the newest elementary campuses in the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, Carpenter Hill and Ralph Pfluger.
Each tank holds 53,000 gallons. Between the four tanks, the campuses can harvest up to 212,000 gallons of water, capturing condensation from air-conditioning units and 85 percent of the rainwater that runs off the schools’ roofs.
“Right now they’re closer to the empty side, because we need some rain,” said Tim Savoy, the district spokesman.
The captured water is used to maintain trees, shrubs and grass at the campuses.
“It’s also a great educational opportunity for students there to learn about environmental science issues, conservation and math, because they tabulate the usage and amounts of rainwater that they collect,” Savoy said. “It’s also setting a good example for them being good stewards of the environment.”
Mary Halenza is harvesting the rain on a smaller scale. Her father showed her how to recycle and sell 55-gallon drums for use as rain barrels. The plastic drums had once transported things like tomato sauce, vinegar, soap or chlorine. Now they sit next to the corners of buildings or beneath downspouts.
One good, light rain is all she needs.
“It’s amazing how a small rain can fill a barrel to provide free water that is not treated for your garden,” Halenza said via email.
Instead of a 55-gallon drum, Mike and Cynthia Barras have a 16,000-gallon tank.
When the couple moved from Kyle to the countryside around Driftwood, the property came with a shallow well that tended to go dry in extreme droughts.
“We had to make a decision on whether to drill a deeper well, and still deal with drought and continued straws being stuck into the aquifer from all the development in Hays County,” Mike said via email, “or go with rainwater collection.”
The Barras opted for the rainwater system.
Gutters around the house feed the massive tank. The water is purified through several filters – sand, particulate, carbon and an ultraviolet light tube – and the process works like a charm, Barras said.
For every one inch of rain, the system catches about 1,100 gallons of water.
“With any decent rainy season we top the tank out, and it easily lasts until the next big rain event,” he said.
The Barras’ system sounds a lot like the catchment system used by Calvin and Jane Kirkham. The Kirkhams switched over from well water to rainwater about five years ago.
During the recent drought, their water reserves plummeted to between a fourth and a third of the tank.
“We got worried,” she said.
But when the rain started falling again, the tank refilled pretty quickly. As for the composting toilet out in the cottage, though, Calvin still hasn’t taken it for a test spin.
“Why would I use that one,” he said, “when I’ve got a good toilet in the house?”
