Rain Harvest Trough SystemBy Emma Figg

Girl Scout Gold ProjectRain Harvest Trough System

My name is Emma Figg and I have been a girl scout since I was 4-years old, participating in a pilot troop for pre-school children called the Pixies. The highest degree you can obtain as a girl scout is the gold award. For my gold project, I designed and created a rain harvest trough system in conjunction with my fellow girl scout, Aly Mohn, who built a community garden.

No natural resource is more important to community gardeners than water, and identifying and ensuring a dependable source is vital to every garden's success. My project is to install a rain water harvesting system to provide free and healthy water to a local community garden with low maintenance required.

The community garden is a valuable resource for our community to provide fresh, low cost produce to families, the neighboring community food pantry and the church where the garden is located for their week Open Table dinners. Providing water to the gardeners is a concern because either the church where the garden is hosted has to provide the water or the gardeners have to bring their own water. I want to provide the garden with fresh, clean and healthy water at no cost to the church or the gardeners.

The following pages will provide more details and pictures of my rain harvest trough system.

Rain Harvest Trough System

• Trough is built using Redwood for longevity

• Rain water is captured from the downspout

• A downspout diverter was installed so the water can be re-directed away from the trough to the runoff for winter.

• A first rain flush system is used to clean the roof debris from the water before entering the trough

• Mesh screening is used to cover the trough to keep debris out of the trough

Building the Rain Harvest Trough System

• Holes were drilled along the bottom of the trough.

• A different size opening on the side of the couplers graduating from small to larger as you move down the trough from the water supply. This helped to control the water flow to each of the water containers to maximize the amount captured and minimize the runoff.

• 1” PVC piping extended down from each coupler to direct the water flow into the jugs. The lengths of the piping varied in correlation to the drop of the trough itself.

Building the Rain Harvest Trough System

• 2 PVC adapter (4” square to 4” round) was used to install the first flush kit.

• The first flush kit was installed• A downspout divert was installed

at the “Y” which allows the water to be switched back and forth between the trough and the downspout.

Building the Rain Harvest Trough System

• This trough was 18’ long and accommodates 18 jugs.

• The trough was built with a 4” drop over the 18’ length (from the water entry to the water exit). This created the water flow needed to reach all jugs.

• The end of trough (water exit) was partially closed with a 2” tall piece of redwood creating a dam which contains the water in the trough until the water level exceeds the 2” height.

Finishing Touches for the Rain Harvest Trough System

• A locking cable and padlocks were installed to secure the jugs during the growing season

• A privacy fence was added in an “L” shape to partial enclose the trough system to hide it from view

• The jugs should be stored inside during the winter months

The various stages of building the water trough system at Beulah Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky