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Program Director Clay Barber met up with West Craven High School students this week to prep for the school’s next stormwater project.

A new rainwater-harvesting cistern will be installed to collect rainwater from the rooftop of storage building, adjacent to the Ag program’s greenhouse. The cistern will be providing the collected, and free, rainwater to irrigate the greenhouse, where plants sold in the high school’s annual plant-sale fundraiser are grown.

“With the budget that we have right now, we’re going to have a hose that stretches from the cistern into the greenhouse to water the plans. But the future plan is to set up a hydroponic grow system,” Clay said.

On Tuesday, Clay delivered a truckload of rock to the school, which he and the Ag program students shoveled into a previously dug hole to create a base for the cistern.

“We filled the hole with the stone, so our water tank has a nice firm foundation,” he said. “We also took measurements to see where we need to cut our gutter and see how much pipe and pipe fixtures we need.”

Clay has joined forces with William Shaw, WCHS’ Future Farmers of America advisor and agricultural educator, to complete the cistern. The project is part of Sound Rivers’ Campus Stormwater Program and partly funded by a $5,000 grant from the Harold Bate Foundation.

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