Others talk “Peak Oil” NEEM talks “Peak Water”

It took 100 years to use oil that took 100 million years to create. If we look at this history with oil and consider our tendency to abuse resources as a species then we must address water now through aquifer management before the aquifers themselves are compromised. We could not replace oil but we can replace water if we start now.

NEEM and RWH 1.2.6APlanProfileSheet

NEEM promotes replacing what we remove. We know our aquifers are at risk. We know the agricultural community would like to pass their farms on to their children knowing that they will have water to continue to farm. It is the future of agriculture in the United States; no water, no farm.

We design large-scale, simplified urban and rural systems. NEEM promotes systems that provide naturally filtered water.

We can easily determine usage through existing data. We know an aquifer’s capacity and what is removed from it in acre-feet. We therefore can determine the amount we need capture to recharge it. This dictates the number and size of systems required. It is as simple as that. There is an inexhaustible supply of rainfall yearly that exceeds what we currently use but is only beneficial to us if we harvest it. NEEM specializes in design and installation of large-scale, unique systems using SPLASH professional engineering software that require little or no maintenance. Why SPLASH and Ripplethru? because its ahead of the curve engineering software you will use soon that eliminates error liability and effects changes across all drawings.

Harvest Capability

The yearly capacity of a given “capture area” is calculated as follows:

Capture area square footage times .623 gallons per inch of annual rain = annual capacity

For example, the NEEM greenhouse is s a capture area. It is 2,850 square feet of surface. At the average annual rainfall for Durham, this will yield 85,226.4 gallons of water in the course of a year. Average monthly total is 6,747 gallons.  Therefore, a two month supply is 13,294 and containment required is 20,000 gallons.

Note: Let NEEM calculate containment accurately. Contact us, donate $20, give us dimensions and roof type, and we’ll get you the correct data before you commit to a system.

Daily Consumption Rates

  • Per Person: 50 -100 gallons
  • Urban Farms: 600 gallons per 1,000 square feet
  • Young Trees: 15 gallons
  • Small Animals: .25 gallons per 25 pounds
  • Dairy Cattle: 20 gallons
  • Range Cattle: 15 gallons

There are more detailed methods of determining plant water usage based on evapotranspiration rate (loss of water soil) or counting the number of drip irrigation heads or outlets used. These can yield more exact calculations.

NEEM DesignsDSCN2092

We create new, one-of-a-kind rain water harvesting systems using SPLASH from Digital Software, Inc in Chapel Hill, NC. NEEM never takes shortcuts in quality and is always ahead of the curve. SPLASH is ahead of the curve in engineering capability and NEEM and Digital have an agreement and work together on sustainable concepts in rain water harvesting. We work in creating innovative and unique systems based on NEEM design specification created by splash. We do not stop at the capture, conveyance and containment. We carry it a step further in gravity feed drip irrigation magnetized water systems. We consider evapotransiration rates and all criteria that affect outcome as stewards to the planet.

ConsultingOld Orchard project sign

NEEM was hired as a consultant to design a rain water harvesting system for the Navajo Nation at Shiprock farm in Shiprock, New Mexico. We were proud and honored to be hired by the Navajo Nation who have culturally been harvesting rain for 2,000 years but have in the last 125 become reliant on the European canal system. NEEM designed a system based on Anasazi/Puebloan/Navajo traditional methods. The result was an under-budget system and sustainable orchard management project with room for grid gardens or orchard expansion. This first-of-its-kind rural rain water harvesting project is capable of providing the necessary water for the Nation/NEEM Agroecological project at Shiprock Farm.

Contact NEEM regarding your rain water harvesting design and consulting needs.

—

NEEM is a not-for-profit activist corporation with methods of operation that have the purpose of affecting public/private sector policies that impact human health, the environment, community and sustainability through promotion and education of effective, naturally occurring biological alternatives.
“ALL FOOD THAT’S FIT TO EAT”™

To request permission to use any material from this site submit your request via e-mail to the Copyright Clearance Center Inc. at www.copyright.com cc neem@neemtree.org. Intellectual property of the corporation, it’s marks, licenses and documents is fully protected by copyright and trademark law, licensed and fully enforced by our intellectual property law firm.™