Escondido Man Uses Special System To Harvest Rain

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Rain is becoming a valuable commodity. So much so, more and more homeowners are harvesting it for themselves.

Bob Toone of Escondido has spent a few thousand dollars making sure every drop of rain that falls on his property stays on his property.

"When it rains, no matter how hard it rains, water doesn’t leave our property," Toone told 10News.

Toone funnels rainwater off his roof into several giant barrels. An above-ground barrel holds 1,100 gallons. A bigger barrel buried underground holds 2,000 gallons.

Toone, who is also the executive director for Ecolife Foundation, said his 1,800 square-foot roof gives him about 23,000 gallons of clean water every year. On average, 1,000 square feet can collect about 600 gallons of rainwater.

Toone’s barrels filled up during one of the recent storms, and he said, "This will take care of my front yard for four months."

Toone also re-landscaped his entire yard. Now, not single drop of rain turns into runoff. All of it runs back towards his plants or is stored in the barrels. He even designed a system that saves water from his pond in case it overflows. He said, "With just a little bit of ingenuity anything the water lands on can be a surface to collect it from."

The city of San Diego has installed several similar systems on public buildings across town. Officials said it has saved them thousands of gallons.