Water in the Desert
A Firsthand Report from a couple in Arizona whose off-the-grid house includes a water catchment system.
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Valerie and John Titan, at left, in front of their home, which is in the upper watershed of the San Pedro River, shown at right
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At our off-the-grid Arizona home, we conserve water to
help protect this fragile ecosystem.
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When we moved from rainy Portland, Ore., to Cochise County,
Ariz., in 1999 to build a 1,200-square-foot solar, straw
bale, completely off-the-grid house, we went one step
further than most folks and decided it would be easier on
the local environment if we didn't drill a well. We live in
the Chihuahuan desert, an area that only gets an average 11
inches of rain per year (for the past few years the average
has been closer to 7 inches!), so rather than depend on an
already overtaxed aquifer for our household water needs, we
decided to install a rainwater harvesting system. We
conserve water carefully, but we live quite comfortably
with this limited supply.
Protecting the natural beauty and rich wildlife habitat of
the nearby San Pedro River, which is directly dependent on
water from the aquifer, is our motivation for saving water.
We live in the upper San Pedro River watershed, near one of
the few cottonwood-willow riparian corridors in the
Southwest. The river is familiar to many birders and
scientists, and National Geographic featured an article on
it in April 2000, written by the well-known author and
Tucson, Ariz., resident Barbara Kingsolver. More than 300
species of birds visit this corridor during their seasonal
migrations.
Sadly, the San Pedro is going the route of many other
Arizona rivers: It may be in the early stages of drying up.
Perhaps foretelling disaster, the growing number of people
who reside in the upper San Pedro watershed use more than
double the amount of water that is recharged into the
aquifer each year. As the aquifer's level drops,
increasingly larger portions of the river are disappearing,
leaving dry gravel beds where Sonoran mud turtles and Gila
topminnows once swam.
GOING OFF-THE-GRID
With money we saved while living in Oregon, we built our
straw bale house, doing almost all of the construction
ourselves, with some help from family and friends. We lived
in a small camp trailer on the property for more than a
year while building. During most of that period, we were
able to take some time off from work; then as money ran
low, we transitioned to part-time and then fulltime jobs.
Right now, both of us work as counselors for the county
health department.
Our house was built as cheaply as possible; we scavenged
windows and doors, cabinets and tile by asking people who
were remodeling their homes if we could have their used
materials. Our completed home is both cozy and beautiful.
Because we did not contract out any of the work (including
the concrete foundations and floors!), we were able to
build without a mortgage. Not having to make monthly
payments on a house is liberating, but what provides even
more satisfaction is knowing that we are actively making
choices to minimize our impact on our very sensitive
environment.
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