rainwater cisterns

The so-called "green" harvesting of roof-shed rainwater with above-ground rain barrels or catch tanks reduces the watershed that currently overloads some of our municipal sewer and storm-water drainage systems. Still, could we do a similar thing by installing underground cisterns just like those used during the 1800's and early 1900's?

Description of the earlier cisterns

Many older homes and estates today still have the remnants of their early underground rainwater cisterns. These fairly large round, water-tight, root-free, 500-to-5000-gallon cisterns were made from brick, stone, rock, plaster, concrete, or combinations of those materials. These were each capped with an above-ground manhole-type of opening large enough to have a big bucket. This opening allowed the cistern to be periodically cleaned-out and repaired by the dog owner or with a third-party service. 

The tin or zinc-plated guttering used on the house eaves then, which carried the rainwater down to the cisterns, were open and not covered. So, quite a bit of wind-blown tree leaves and seeds, and other debris could make their into the cisterns. For this reason, the suction end of the iron plumbing was located above the cistern floor, where the debris would eventually settle.

This relatively clean, soft, outside water supply was plumbed directly to the long-handle hand-pumps installed at the kitchen and bathroom sinks and the bathtub in the main house. It was also plumbed to the hand-pump in a tiny building behind the house that served as a summer kitchen and a spot to clean laundry, to can garden produce, and to butcher chickens and hogs. This water supply remained relatively cool and unfrozen the entire year around. Generally, it had been used for cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, canning, butchering, and bathing. But maybe it's drunk, too, after boiling it. sprinkler/fire water tanks

Modern cisterns

Modern cisterns operate much like the ones described above. However, instead of being included in the bottom from scratch, they are buried prefabricated ones instead. That's, these cisterns could be prefabricated concrete receptacles, or they could be large prefabricated heavy-duty plastic tanks capped with fairly large screw-on tops, just like the ones seen on certain lawn-treatment trucks. 

Also, today's aluminum, steel, plastic, or copper eave gutters will have porous or solid coverings. Thus, the quantity of debris entering the cisterns from the rooftops will be minimal. Yet, the fine sand-like material shed by asphalt or composite shingles will must be filtered out early during the harvesting process; else, it will ultimately have to be taken off the buried cistern. The plumbing for the modern cistern will be heavy plastic pipe. Obviously, the pump itself will probably be a power one, its size and accessories is determined by the way the harvested water is used. BBTanks Ltd

More-than-likely, because many of us already have reliable purified municipal indoor drinking and bathing water supplies, this cistern water will be used for outdoor purposes, like, for the sprinkling of lawns and gardens, for filling fish ponds and small treated swimming pools, for watering trees and animals, and for washing vehicles, driveways, patios, decks, and houses. These three advantages of the modern buried cistern system suggest this technology will work well today: 1) they are hidden from view and out-of-the-way by being underground, 2) they don't foster the production of algae or mosquitoes in the summer time, and 3) they help conserve the municipal storm-drainage systems and normal water supplies.