Latest / Conservation Stories / Catching Every Drop: Rainwater Harvesting, Stormwater Reuse, and the Future of Water Conservation

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Catching Every Drop: Rainwater Harvesting, Stormwater Reuse, and the Future of Water Conservation · Conservation Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:08
  Speaker B: Hello friends. Tillery Timmins Sims here again with you for another episode of Conservation Stories. Conservation Stories is a podcast brought to you by the Sand Hill Area Research Association. You can go check us out at sarah-conservation.com and see what we're up to over there in our programs and our blogs and, and all those types of things. And we're also on all the social medias, as everyone usually is these days. And I have with me Heather Kincaid and I'm interested in visiting with Heather because Lacy, as most of you know, is the founder of our organization, is recently has been, has gotten on the flood plan committee for the Texas Water Development Board there. It's like 10 layers so I don't actually understand how many anyway, so, but she's doing flood planning stuff and, and then we just always have an interest on like when it does rain, what, what's going to happen and how can we not lose it and those kind of things. So Heather, would you give us a little bit about you and where you're from and, and who you work with and what you do?
• 1:19
  Speaker A: Definitely. Well, thank you very much for bringing us on today. I am the executive director for ARCSA International and we are a non profit that started in Texas. We're still registered in Texas, so hopefully people know us. We've been around for over 32 years now. We started as a small group and eventually we had people saying, well, I know how to do rainwater harvesting. Well, I know how to do rainwater harvesting. And we said, well, how do we know that you know how to do that? So we started a training program and an accreditation program with an open book exam. But it then moved into a professional kind of a trade organization and we now have a third party certification for professionals rainwater harvesting personnel. And it's a design and install and inspector so you can get all or one of those certifications. And we are all about rainwater harvesting and stormwater catchment. Eventually I think we'll move into some of the other waters because rainwater is more of a, an initial get into water catchment and reuse. And if you add these others like rainwater when it rains and air conditioning condensate when it's summertime and there's no rain, then you can add all these waters up to have a kind of a full water supply. What else? We're a small group of people, but we do have all of our standards. We have two standards, national standards, which sets us apart from any other organization out there dealing with rainwater and stormwater. And it's in the uniform plumbing code in a lot of the areas potable water as well as non potable uses. And we're starting to get into a lot of other cities and states. As you know the water crisis kind of comes around.
• 3:41
  Speaker B: Yes, it is expanding isn't really is it is. So I'm interested. You know we, we live, we're in Lubbock and so we have a playa like play like system that you know, catches. These were players that have been dug out. And so our, we, we always have like when it rains we have these massive flood events for a few minutes and you know sometimes cars floating and those kind of things and then all the water goes away and the playas fill up for a little while and you know, but I see all this water running down my street to that playa that's just going to sit there, you know, and evaporate.
• 4:28
  Speaker A: I know there's a couple places in California, you know they had the, the wildfires and now all that runoff and they're finally starting to think about it. They're putting in some stormwater catchment areas from those, you know, destroyed runoff areas.
• 4:50
  Speaker B: Right.
• 4:50
  Speaker A: And they're. Right now they're just infiltrating it. But you know, they should be catching it and reusing it for irrigation. You know, we don't want it to jump from the rivers to the ocean. You know, we want to be able to take that water and use it intelligently until it gets, you know, treated and cleaned and then put it back into the rivers. You know, in Yuma, some of the, the river time down there is just mud. There's no water because we're sucking everything with all our straws, you know, to right. Try and make our, our human.
• 5:33
  Speaker B: Right.
• 5:33
  Speaker A: Water supplies, you know.
• 5:35
  Speaker B: Right, right. So what are you seeing that different ways of unique ways that people are capturing some of this? I mean as, as cities and, and even as you know, individual citizens like I know in Texas, you know, we, we can capture. I know there's some, some states that you can't capture the rainwater if I understand correctly, but we can do that and I could capture the water that's running down my street, you know. So what are some ideas that you're seeing implemented?
• 6:06
  Speaker A: Well, there's a lot of ways to capture. There's probably we should talk about when rainwater hits a rooftop and it hasn't touched a surf, has had human interaction like a parking structure or something that is called rainwater catchment. But if the water then hits the
• 6:29
  Speaker B: ground, it's called stormwater okay, so there we go. Okay. Yeah, I know.
• 6:35
  Speaker A: And the rainwater is much cleaner because it hasn't gotten, you know, dog manure, vehicle oil, stuff like that in it. So for the rooftop, you can use it for anything that you would use municipal water for. As long as you treat it to that level, you know, it's fit for purpose. So if you use a. Want to drink it, then you need to treat it to that drinking water level. If you want to flush a toilet, then you don't necessarily need to treat it to that potable level.
• 7:13
  Speaker B: Right.
• 7:15
  Speaker A: And with storm water, they're doing more and more with catching that water too. There's a lot. You go from your rain barrels to your much larger. And Texas has always had the big metal tanks or the rock clad tanks, right?
• 7:36
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 7:37
  Speaker A: Which are beautiful. And they do have some, even the, the wood clad tanks, which again, are beautiful too. And you don't see those everywhere, mainly just in Texas.
• 7:50
  Speaker B: Interesting.
• 7:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, they usually have just the plastic tanks or maybe steel tanks in other locations. But Texas has really made it part of the building. They've made it very visual. And there's a lot, you know, like the ice skating rinks up in Seattle, those are from rainwater catchment. There's a lot of irrigation for big like soccer stadiums and hospitals for reuse. And now the data centers are coming up and they'll be using a lot of rainwater and stormwater for those. You name it. You can use the rainwater for whatever you need a water use for.
• 8:42
  Speaker B: Right. So we don't. You don't see it very often where there's, you know, storm water capture, like rainwater capture on, on buildings here. I know that we have one business here that's done a really good job of doing that, but you don't see it a lot on just houses. Are you seeing anywhere where developers are going in and just. And putting this in as part of the development in neighborhoods?
• 9:13
  Speaker A: Well, to retrofit is always more expensive.
• 9:17
  Speaker B: Right.
• 9:18
  Speaker A: And to build it into a system at the original, you know, site plans. Building plans is a lot cheaper.
• 9:26
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 9:27
  Speaker A: And in some cases you can't even see the rainwater systems because they're either in the basement, storage tanks or underground. So it's hard to know if a building is actually, you know, has a rainwater system.
• 9:43
  Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
• 9:45
  Speaker A: A lot of big buildings, big projects have rainwater systems and you wouldn't know it. So unless it's out visually displayed, like your rock tanks or the Wildflower center type of, you know, people don't know It Fascinating.
• 10:07
  Speaker B: So I know I've seen. I saw a. A home in Amarillo that was catching. They were like their streets floods, and then it runs down between their house and their neighbor's house. And they put in a tank in the ground there. That's where. I'd never seen anything like that, where they just put this catchment tank in the ground. And that was what's catching all that water as it goes by, filling up that tank.
• 10:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that kind of goes against, you know, the traditional civil engineering where you put the gutters in and you brush that water away as fast as you can to a storm drain.
• 10:45
  Speaker B: Right.
• 10:45
  Speaker A: And to try and take that water out of the street and back into your property to be used for your landscape in any way. People get nervous about that because that's not the traditional way of doing it. And you're going to flood everybody and, you know.
• 11:04
  Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
• 11:05
  Speaker A: Scary for people to. To think about doing something like that. Good for them, you know.
• 11:12
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:12
  Speaker A: Well, they have an outlet where they can. If it overflows.
• 11:17
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. It just goes straight by them, you know what I mean? And when it's full, it just keeps on going.
• 11:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, There you go. And then they can use it when it's dry. Perfect.
• 11:28
  Speaker B: Yeah. So have you. Have you seen the. The. I think it's in. I think it's in Phoenix where they're doing the curb cutouts.
• 11:36
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 11:37
  Speaker B: Inside. What. What does that look like in Tucson?
• 11:40
  Speaker A: Tucson does a lot of it. Like a roundabout. They'll have. Most places you have your curbs, and then it's built up. So that water drains.
• 11:52
  Speaker B: Yes, Right.
• 11:53
  Speaker A: In those areas they have the curb, and then it's depressed, so the water comes in and it fills up that basin. And then like your friends, it'll keep on flowing past, but it's captured that little first splash or whatever of the water and gives an extra drink to the plants. And. And I mean, most of the places in nature, when you see a tree growing, it's in a depressed area. It's not on a berm.
• 12:22
  Speaker B: Right.
• 12:23
  Speaker A: Top of a mountain. They're not alleys.
• 12:25
  Speaker B: Right. Yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker A: Why not build like nature and try to catch.
• 12:30
  Speaker B: Right. Well, that's, you know, like in my case, on our street, minute comes up into my yard when it floods, because ours is a, you know, it's a street that is. It's designed for the water to flow, you know, down through our street and then down to the playa, you know, and so I've thought about that many times. I've Sat there and I've seen all that and I thought there's got to be a way.
• 12:53
  Speaker A: Yep. And that's more of what they call green infrastructure.
• 12:58
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 12:59
  Speaker A: Passive rainwater catchment. Stormwater catchment. So what you're doing is just taking, you know, little buckets of water.
• 13:08
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 13:09
  Speaker A: That huge flow. And hopefully that will slow the water or slow the peak so you won't flood as much. I mean, if we all did that and we kept the water where it fell, then you wouldn't have all these huge.
• 13:25
  Speaker B: Exactly. Right.
• 13:28
  Speaker A: And we are building more and more hard surfaces that don't allow water to infiltrate. And we should be compensating that with other lower areas to make up for what we're blocking.
• 13:43
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:44
  Speaker A: But it hasn't gotten to that state yet. People haven't realized that.
• 13:48
  Speaker B: Right. So I know I heard our senator say we need to have, you know, we need to have some kind of, you know, state sponsored, like water, you know, like lawn conversion kind of thing, you know, And I've thought, I mean, it would need, in my mind, it should include something like that. If we're going to convert our, you know, my grass in my front yard from, you know, Bermuda to native, you know, native grasses, then seems like would be a good time to just, hey, let's add a couple of low spots here.
• 14:20
  Speaker A: Nope, your thinking is perfect.
• 14:22
  Speaker B: You know, instead of these, these flat, these flat grass, just it. Yeah, that's. That would be, I mean, that how. That wouldn't be hard.
• 14:33
  Speaker A: No. And they have, in, I think it's Seattle, they have the rain gardens where all that storm water was running off and it was affecting the salmon. So they put in the rain gardens. And so now that road will. All that stormwater will go into these rain gardens down the neighborhood. And it, it infiltrates and it purifies that water instead of letting the polluted street water run into the creeks and hurt the salmon. So there's lots of proof, but it's still scary. People don't understand, you know, rainwater. It's like, I wouldn't drink that water off my roof. I'm like, well, I'd drink that water off my roof before I drink it off the street.
• 15:21
  Speaker B: Right, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
• 15:24
  Speaker A: Well, the municipalities are putting in your water anyway.
• 15:29
  Speaker B: Oh, we, you know, we've done a lot of work in produced water and we've had a couple of conversations about, why don't you take cleaned, treated, produced water and Compare it to 10 different municipalities water.
• 15:44
  Speaker A: Right.
• 15:45
  Speaker B: And they're like, because we don't want people to get mad at us.
• 15:49
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 15:50
  Speaker B: I think people need to know. Well, I, I think, you know, I know that we already in Midland, Odessa Inn in Wichita Falls, I think it was a couple of months ago. We had someone on it said, I mean, they're like toilet to tap, you know, they're already recycling. So, I mean, I, I don't. I'm not sure that people are totally aware, like, where we are here, that, like, those days are coming. They're. They're close enough that they're in two cities that aren't, but, you know, two hours from us or three hours from us. So, like, we need to be thinking about every way, you know, if we don't want to be drinking what's out of our toilets that's perfectly cleaned, then we need to figure out what else are we going to do, you know?
• 16:35
  Speaker A: Right, right. And they're in Texas. I think they're looking at fracking water.
• 16:40
  Speaker B: Yes. That's produced water.
• 16:42
  Speaker A: Yeah. Trying to redo a lot with that. And I'm like, you've got so many other waters to look at too.
• 16:48
  Speaker B: Which. Well, I think so, you know, and I've. I've had legislators say, well, you can't conserve anymore. I'm like, I don't think we've even started to talk about.
• 16:57
  Speaker A: No, so what they're thinking about conservation is just changing your faucets or changing your shower heads or.
• 17:04
  Speaker B: Oh, that's not even a conversation here. Yeah, no, I mean, like, I mean, maybe in Austin people would talk about that, but on, no, no, on this side, we don't. We don't think about it. And I mean, the only people, I think, as a whole, agriculture thinks about it all the time, you know, is how do we conserve and how can we be the most, you know, detail about every little drop of water? Do we need it? Do we not need it? And how can we make the best use of it, you know, but otherwise you just don't hear, you know, I know we have. You know, you're supposed to water your lawns on this day. And on this day, if you're this. And on this day and. And I don't. That's not even enforced, you know. And so I don't know how you go about, you know, it's other than just education and a lot of it, you know, making sure people understand where we're headed.
• 17:59
  Speaker A: Right. And so we've been 32 years, we've been trying to tell people about rainwater catchment. Right. And like every 10 years, we're like, oh, it's finally catching on, you know, and now it's like finally when people are hurting.
• 18:18
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 18:18
  Speaker A: They're starting to look at.
• 18:20
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 18:21
  Speaker A: So for 30 years we've been saying this is great water. You should conserve your potable water from the municipalities and use what falls on your site. Oh, we don't need to do that. We have so much water we don't need. And now they're starting to say, oh man.
• 18:40
  Speaker B: Right.
• 18:41
  Speaker A: Our wells are drying up. And you know, it's, it's finally globally being looked at.
• 18:51
  Speaker B: Well, that's why I know in Austin they have, I mean you have to put in entire catchment systems. I think if you're building, you know, commercial buildings, like it's required there, you know, and, and I've wondered here about. You're not. We just, we have a lot of housing that's always going up here and I, I've wondered like, how do you. Well, you know, work with builders in the city.
• 19:15
  Speaker A: Yeah, the cities, you know, they're a little afraid because you're taking water from their, their billing. You know, they don't understand that it's an all or nothing. You know, it can't be. We always have to have that makeup water. So we're not gonna. By installing rainwater systems. We're not totally shutting off the municipal water. We're just giving you a. A break or we're relieving that stress on your municipal water supplies. We're worried about who's gonna control these decentralized systems. Were worried that who's gonna install these systems. You know, maybe they don't maintain them correctly so they get polluted and you know, people could get sick. You know, it's just all these unknowns. Even the workforce, the installers, the designers, they all need to be educated to do these type of systems. And they're really simple, but you have to follow those steps or, and maintain them or they, you know, don't work as well. They're not.
• 20:32
  Speaker B: Well, it's just like any other part of your house, you know, you still have to, you know, we just recently had to clean out our dryer. Right, Exactly. I mean you, you have to do all of those things. So it's just another. But I. Do you see like whole. Have you seen like whole developments of like this whole development? All of it's going to have rainwater capture.
• 20:57
  Speaker A: There are some, there's like, you know, like a multi family development, there's some residential, but we don't want them or I don't feel they should be totally on just rainwater. I think they should on rainwater and still have that.
• 21:19
  Speaker B: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah. I mean, to us, I'm just like, if we just had it just for using to water our lawns, you know.
• 21:27
  Speaker A: Right.
• 21:28
  Speaker B: You know, just keep it just for that. You don't have to drink it.
• 21:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker B: You know, toilets or if you want
• 21:36
  Speaker A: to grow a garden, I mean, that water could be used for all of those. Or wash your car, you know.
• 21:44
  Speaker B: Right, right.
• 21:45
  Speaker A: Things like that. Yeah. Barrels are more of like a intro to rainwater harvesting. I mean, once you get a 55 gallon barrel, you know, you're like, I need more water. You know, so then you move to a thousand gallons. You move to a 5,000 gallons. It's like, why didn't you start?
• 22:09
  Speaker B: Wow. Wow, that's interesting. I know. The first time I think I saw it, I have a friend that had had captioned all over her, her house and she had barrels everywhere. Of course, she's wonderful gardener, but I've never seen it before, you know, and wow, what a great way to, you know, be able to use that on her plant was just all at all the corners, everywhere she could put these barrels, they were all over her house, you know, so she just had immediate access, you know, I was like, actually that's even a little easier than just going to get in the garden hose, you know.
• 22:45
  Speaker A: Right. I have a couple in mine and I water all my front house with those rain barrels.
• 22:53
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:53
  Speaker A: But my house is 100 years old. It wasn't designed to have dual plumbing for gray water or.
• 23:00
  Speaker B: Right.
• 23:01
  Speaker A: The gutters don't go the direction want them to go.
• 23:05
  Speaker B: Right, Right.
• 23:06
  Speaker A: So it takes a lot of retrofit.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 23:09
  Speaker A: For these existing buildings. We can still do it though. Yeah, we need to. We can, right?
• 23:17
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and it's, you know, one of those things about you've got to figure out, you know, what are the economics of this and how, how long will it, you know, take for it to pay out and you know, those types of things. And. But I think that if, if I think that in within the next, you know, few decades, I think a lot of that stuff will be more common than kids in the next few generations will be. I think it'll be part of their thinking maybe when they build a house.
• 23:47
  Speaker A: Yep. No, I think that's true. And I think that as the water prices go up, the return on investment ROI is going to go down.
• 23:58
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 23:59
  Speaker A: They'll be able to put them in at a much more understandable price.
• 24:05
  Speaker B: Right.
• 24:05
  Speaker A: I mean, the biggest thing Right now is the. The tanks. They're the biggest cost. Most houses have gutters, but they don't have gutter guards and they don't have. You don't have your first flush to get rid of that nasty pine needle.
• 24:24
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 24:25
  Speaker A: Water.
• 24:25
  Speaker B: Well, for us it would just be dirt. There would be no pine needles. It would just be a whole bunch of dirt, you know. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Because the wind just blows and it doesn't rain very often.
• 24:40
  Speaker A: Well. And I know some people. I think he's in Dallas, he uses his rainwater because he's on a clay based and he keeps the clay moist. So.
• 24:52
  Speaker B: Interesting. For his foundation.
• 24:55
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 24:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, that is interesting. What. That's actually a really smart idea,
• 25:02
  Speaker A: contracting and.
• 25:04
  Speaker B: Yes, it's a problem there.
• 25:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 25:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. Wow, that's interesting. So how many states do you guys work in and kind of. What do y'. All. What do you do? You've got your certifications and those types of things. You have meetings, educational things. And we do.
• 25:21
  Speaker A: We have two gatherings, I guess a year. One is going to be here in Brookshire, outside of Houston, the technical symposium. And this is going to be more of an educational kind of a gathering where we do more technical training. And then we have our national annual conference which talks about more of the big picture, more of the projects that are being installed, things to look for, what are the new studies out, things like that. So they're. They're complementary, Right. You know, totally different projects. We also have online training and you know, I think everybody now has online training because it's.
• 26:14
  Speaker B: It's really nice, right? Yes.
• 26:16
  Speaker A: Yep. And then we have some in person. But, you know, it's a lot of money to travel. It's a lot of money for a business to send somebody to spend a week learning all that.
• 26:30
  Speaker B: Right.
• 26:31
  Speaker A: So the online training really offsets a lot of that. You can do it whenever you need to, weekends, nights type of thing, right?
• 26:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 26:40
  Speaker A: But we do need to push the technical symposium because that's hopefully going to take the place of some of these in person training. And you do get to meet all of our vendors, you know, all the tank and filters, all of that.
• 27:00
  Speaker B: And that's the one that's in Houston. Yeah, Houston area.
• 27:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. Brookshire. Yep. Do I say it wrong? Berkshire?
• 27:08
  Speaker B: I don't know because I've never heard of it.
• 27:11
  Speaker A: Katie, do you know Katie?
• 27:13
  Speaker B: I know Katie, yes. I. Where Katie is. Yep. Okay. All right. Right there by Katie. That's really fascinating. So you guys have members in multiple states is what it Sounds like.
• 27:26
  Speaker A: Yep, you asked me that. Yes. We are in every state. We're in Canada, we're in New Me or in Mexico. We've actually, they've taken our manual, our training manual and adapted it to Mexico. We are, we have a off grid manual that's going to possibly the UN to help people in Africa. Oh, interesting. Put in rainwater systems and we have a initiative with the UN to do try and get rainwater systems accepted in more locations.
• 28:04
  Speaker B: So that's great.
• 28:06
  Speaker A: We're international.
• 28:08
  Speaker B: Yes, you are. Wow. And you guys started 30 years ago, just a small group of people.
• 28:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, I actually was designing auto malls in the. The Penske. The auto mall owner was like, I need more parking spaces. And I'm like, well, I have to have drainage. You know, we got to have these big basins. Well, get rid of those basins, you know.
• 28:35
  Speaker B: Oh my goodness.
• 28:36
  Speaker A: So I started looking into how to put water underground and came up with rainwater catchment and wrote for a master's project a book on rainwater catchment and have since written a couple more books on rainwater catchment and then helps ARCSA begin their bylaws. And I've been their executive director for close to 15 years now.
• 29:03
  Speaker B: Wow. You know, it is, it's like that, that's what happens. It's like, you know, it's. Unless you are, are pushed to, to meet a need, we just don't do it. And, and I think that you're right. It's like when it's starting to hurt, then people are starting to pay attention and you know, what, what can we do?
• 29:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now I think rainwater. I've been talking to the EPA a lot and they keep putting rainwater on the bottom of the list. And I keep saying you got to put it on the top of the list, it's the cleanest water. You need to be using that first. Then you start coming down to your other waters if they are impaired. But all of those waters need to work together to give you a full supply. That's what people are just pinpointing different things instead of trying to make it all work together. And I think that's the future is bringing all these waters together to fill different time spaces and needs. And by the time you get down to the dirtiest water, which would be your black water.
• 30:17
  Speaker B: Right.
• 30:17
  Speaker A: You also need to look at that circular environment and try to get a lot of those phosphorus and other elements that are in there and reuse those instead of putting them in the water and polluting our rivers again.
• 30:34
  Speaker B: Right, right, exactly.
• 30:36
  Speaker A: So It's a full economy of water.
• 30:39
  Speaker B: Yes, it really is. And I. I was just visiting with a friend that's rehydrating, and we were talking about a mutual friend of ours who says, you know, we don't need a silver bullet. We need gold. Gold buckshot. You know, so it's like all of these different things have to. But they also have to be coordinated and working together, and there needs to be that collaboration. And I'm. I'm reading in a. An A white paper right now on. I. I'm trying to think exactly how to say the word, but he used it sim. Simplexic. Simplexic. It's like complex and simple together, you know, and that, like, there's a lot of small, simple things in a complex system, you know, that need to be. You have to look at those things at the same time, you know, and so it's going to take a lot of work for a lot of people. But I appreciate what you guys are doing and raising awareness, and I really do think that, you know, you guys are starting to see. People are asking, people are calling out the blue, saying, hey, we want to know about what you're doing. Come on our podcast.
• 31:54
  Speaker A: And we're getting it into more of the standards in the codes.
• 31:58
  Speaker B: That's important. That is so important. Yeah, I know. I did some work with ASTM for a little while, doing some, you know, how can we write some, you know, standards for particulars for hemp fiber? And it's a complex. That's. You getting something like that done. It's a. It's a. Just a big lift.
• 32:24
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:24
  Speaker B: That's a lot of. It takes a lot of collaboration, like
• 32:27
  Speaker A: 2024 standards, you know, and it's like, can we speed this up? Yes.
• 32:35
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 32:36
  Speaker A: Or 2020? I'm like, you're so far behind. You need to.
• 32:40
  Speaker B: I know, I know. It's so true. And you have, you know, especially within that system like astm, you have all of these different people that are coming with all of these different priorities and loyalties, you know, and preconceived notions. And so you have to battle through.
• 32:57
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:58
  Speaker B: All of that.
• 33:00
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:00
  Speaker B: To get to a standard should be
• 33:02
  Speaker A: working to one goal. And you're right. A lot of people are like, well, I need to get my equipment in that code.
• 33:08
  Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
• 33:09
  Speaker A: That equipment's not helping our goal here.
• 33:12
  Speaker B: Exactly. That's exactly right. Yeah. You see that a lot in a lot of industries. I see that. Yeah. Well, this has been really interesting. I really appreciate you giving us your time. Heather. And giving us some information.
• 33:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they can find us at arcsa. Arcsa international.org.
• 33:34
  Speaker B: okay.
• 33:35
  Speaker A: And we have a lot of information on our website and you can find the technical symposium, the conference.
• 33:42
  Speaker B: Awesome.
• 33:43
  Speaker A: Lots of white papers, all kinds of information.
• 33:47
  Speaker B: Great.
• 33:48
  Speaker A: My advertising. Right.
• 33:50
  Speaker B: Yes. Where we'll put all of that in the show notes. And then of course, we'll, when we put that out, you know, on. On social medias and stuff, people will be able to, you know, go to your website and that kind of stuff and, and see what you guys have going and, and maybe join. I. We interviewed a guy here in Texas that's doing a lot of rainwater catchment and, you know, trying to do education and stuff too. So maybe you guys can. Conn Son is his name. So maybe that would be a good connection to. Because I know folks will have probably heard that one before this one comes out. So I would think that would be a great. This is a great compliment to his work, to what they're doing, you know, trying to raise awareness and help people understand how to do it, you know, Perfect. No. Yeah.
• 34:40
  Speaker A: Even if it's just like you say, a little bit off the street, you know.
• 34:45
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 34:45
  Speaker A: Everything helps.
• 34:46
  Speaker B: Everything helps. Exactly. Exactly. Well, anything you want to tell our listeners before we go?
• 34:52
  Speaker A: No, thank you very much. I appreciate getting the word out there and anytime I'm able to stand on my soapbox and appreciate it, rafters, as they say, kind of thing, I'm ready.
• 35:05
  Speaker B: Okay. Awesome. Heather. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining Heather and I today. And I hope that you found this helpful. Go to their website. You'll see it in the, in the show notes and see what you can learn. And I can tell you that, you know, if you've, if I got an entrepreneur listening to us, like, this is something that, you know, it's. That I think is going to be growing and developing in this area. And so take that certification. If you're, you know, you have a lawn service agency. I mean, like, this would be a great compliment to somebody that's doing lawn care and that kind of thing to have. Have that ability to build those systems, design them and. And be certified, like a legit certification for it would be a great thing. So y.
• 35:45
  Speaker A: Maintain. Yeah.
• 35:46
  Speaker B: Yes. Yep. Take that is. I, I think that's a. My. My entrepreneurial self is going ding, ding, ding, ding. So we will see you guys again on another episode of Conservation.