A great article by Ken in the Green Business Chronicle… Thanks Ken
City officials have agreed to lower a portion of the proposed fees attached to a landmark ordinance designed to allow single-family homes in Atlanta to install potable rainwater systems.
Potable rainwater treatment system inside the basement of an Atlanta home. Photo courtesy of Bob Drew.
That clears way for the City Council Public Utilities Committee to approve the ordinance at its Aug. 30 meeting. The full Council could approve the legislation as early as September.
The ordinance creates permitting guidelines for potable rainwater systems, which currently have no way to be considered fully legal because they fall outside the permitting guidelines for other plumbing systems.
As opposed to the more common rainwater systems that homeowners use to water lawns and gardens (which will continue not to require permits), potable systems are designed to treat rainwater for use inside homes.
The fees are necessary because potable systems send wastewater that has to be fully treated into the city’s sanitary sewer system. Earlier this year, officials in the city’s Office of Sustainability and Department of Watershed Management proposed annual fees for houses with potable systems, because unlike houses with conventional plumbing, they can’t be billed monthly based on the amount of water they’re drawing from the city.
But rainwater contractors pointed out that some potable system also provide landscape water. So city officials agreed in their new fee schedule to accommodate those dual-purpose systems by giving them a 30 percent discount. That means, for example, that a 3,400-gallon system — about the size that a single-family home might use — would be assessed $306.81 instead of $438.30.
Only a handful of potable rainwater systems have been installed in the Atlanta area. But advocates like Bob Drew of Ecovie Environmental argue widespread potable systems could contribute to increasing Atlanta’s water supply more quickly and cost effectively than reservoirs would. Not widespread in the United States, the systems are fairly common in Australia, Germany and a handful of other countries.
Councilwoman Carla Smith compared the acceptance of potable rainwater systems to compact-florescent bulbs 15 years ago at a recent Utilities Committee meeting, according to those present. Others Council members have urged city officials to seek ways to provide incentives to install the systems.
With the ordinance’s passage, Atlanta would become the first major city to establish its own permitting setup for potable rainwater, although other cities permit such systems via state law.
