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US (MI): Detroit urban farm embraces sustainable water use

Farm manager Patrick Crouch says "the motivation was multitude” for investing in a rainwater catchment system in Earthworks Urban Farm at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen on Detroit's East Side.
 
Crouch says rainwater is better for plants than treated municipal water. Also, a catchment system can prevent runoff from flooding the hoop house (a passive solar greenhouse used for producing food year-round) and overflowing into municipal gutters. And of course, there's the cost of city water for a structure that needs almost constant irrigation, as well as the potential of securing credits for green infrastructure under the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s new storm-water rules.
 
“So looking at all those factors together,” Crouch says, “it seemed like the most cost-effective thing—even though it wasn’t cheap up front—was to put in the rainwater catchment system.”
 
Much has been made of the vast amounts of open space potentially available for farming in a city like Detroit. Yet, this land is often lacking in water infrastructure. Water lines and sewerage costs can be prohibitively expensive. Green infrastructure has the potential to make these spaces productive and profitable.
 
The Earthworks system consists of three tanks—two below ground and one elevated above—that receive rainwater from the gutters on the side of the hoop-house. The lower tanks take the water directly and a solar-powered pump slowly moves it into the elevated tank to give it the necessary pressure to force it through the drip lines running back into the hoop-house.

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