Posted: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:26 AM - 10,412 Readers
By: Asher Price
photography by Jay Janner
Getting into the Central Texas rainwater collection business doesn't seem like the brightest move in the middle of a drought.
Earlier this month , in a sprawling warehouse that once served as a shrimp farm, partners in Agana Rain Water flipped the switch on a conveyor belt that fills half-liter bottles with rainwater collected from the roof.
Theirs is one of at least three companies that capture rainwater in scorched Central Texas. A fourth company, based in Austin, ships in bottled rainwater from Oregon for distribution.
While still cordial, the rainwater business has become a competitive one in these parts, as companies vie for prominence by boasting of nutritional value, filtering mechanisms and even how environmentally responsible their bottles are.
Although their business plans depend on H2O falling from the clouds, Central Texas commercial rainwater collectors seem scarcely fazed by the parched weather that has choked the region.
Relying on simple calculations involving average rainfall and roof square footage, Marc Howell , a co-owner of Agana, cheerfully said his company is in fine shape.
"In a normal year, we'd get 31 inches of rain," he said. "That's equal to about 3.5 million gallons of rain, or 24 million bottles (at the Agana collection facility). Even half that much and we've got plenty.
"We're the wildcatters of the bottled water industry," Howell said. He said his business can grow exponentially — as if Texas were some kind of Amazonian rain forest.
photography by Jay Janner
The company moved into the building in Buda in October and set up shop. Gutters direct water into a pair of 65,000-gallon cisterns. A series of pipes sends the water at 15 gallons a minute through several filters before it gets bottled, filling up to 6,750 half-liter bottles an hour.
Marketing claims vaguely wave at a cleaner, healthier product than tap water. "Purely responsible," claims the Agana label.
Richard Heinichen , owner of Tank Town and a widely deemed a trailblazer in the business, markets his product as: "Fresh-squeezed Cloud Juice. Made between heaven and Earth over Dripping Springs, Texas."
Rainwater "is more pure than what you can find anywhere else," said Lacey Martinez , who heads the manufacturing operation at Smithville-based Texas Rain. Like Agana, Texas Rain trumpets the biodegradability of its bottles.
The company has so much storage capacity in Smithville that "we could go a year without rain and do fine," Martinez said. With the launch of the Buda operation, she said, "it's apparently gotten more competitive."
Texas Rain distributes to Walgreens and other stores across Central Texas. The rainwater bottlers also make money selling their product under private labels, such as one for Farm to Market grocery in South Austin.
None of the operators has particularly nice words about municipal water. Most tap water in Central Texas comes from the Colorado River or underground aquifers and is treated with chemicals — such as chlorine — to clean it up. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, tap water meeting its cleanup standards is safe to drink.
"Water becomes anything it touches," said Wendy Goodwin , another owner of Agana, which she said means "rain" in Cherokee, a nod to her heritage. Goodwin said water picks up material and chemicals after it falls to the ground and makes its way into creeks, reservoirs or aquifers.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says that rainwater is better for plants than chemically treated water. But Doug Pushard, a founder of HarvestH20.com, a website that encourages rainwater collection, warns, "Rainwater is generally free of harmful minerals, and in most cases chemicals, but can be adversely affected by air pollutants."
As it falls, rainwater can pick up soot and other airborne microscopic contaminants. On the roof, rainwater can be exposed to herbicide or pesticide sprays that have adhered to leaves, or it can be tainted by animal droppings.
Thousands of Central Texans have set up rain barrels to feed their plants. Approximately 14,000 rain barrels have been sold by the City of Austin under a series of rainwater harvesting programs that date to 1998 , according to Jason Hill , a spokesman for the Austin Water Utility. Austin's program aims to encourage water conservation.
Far fewer residents use rain barrels as a source of potable water.
"From a financial perspective, the installation and maintenance costs of a rainwater harvesting system for potable water cannot compete with water supplied by a central utility, but is often cost-competitive with installation of a well in rural settings," according to a handbook by the Texas Water Development Board.
There are no regulatory standards on the quality of harvested rainwater if used for potable purposes by an individual and not by a public water system. But commercial water purveyors such as Agana are regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Laura Pressley , who sells her Pure Rain product at Whole Foods and Central Market, said she decided to bring in rainwater from Oregon because she didn't want to take chances with supply during drought and because the "chemistry of the Texas rain is different from the rain in Oregon."
"Clouds from the south have debris in the air from Mexico fires," Pressley said. "In Oregon, rain comes across the Arctic and North Pacific; it's much purer."
Pressley, who says she has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Texas, said she relies on an especially intense filtration process that leads to greater water .
There's an apparent environmental contradiction in shipping collected rainwater by truck and train across the country, because of all the fuel emissions associated with transportation.
But Pressley said what she calls the increased purity is worth it.
"The purity of the rain — I can't match here in Texas," she said.
