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Havelock High School is now home to a first for Sound Rivers: an underground rainwater harvesting cistern.

Courtesy of grants from the Harold Bate Foundation, Bosch Community Fund and Craven Community Foundation awarded to Sound Rivers’ Campus Stormwater Program, the underground cistern will supply water from a spigot to the school’s agricultural area.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Sound Rivers Program Director Clay Barber. “We’re kind of experimenting, because we haven’t done one of these before. They’re common — actually, more common than aboveground cisterns, but this is a first for us.”

The decision to go underground to store stormwater runoff from an adjacent building was based on aesthetics and maintenance.

“There’s the building that we’re getting runoff from, a little lawn area where the tank is buried, and adjacent to that is an agricultural area with chickens, goats and a garden area, but all that is located right on the road facing the front of the school, so no one was really excited about a big, black plastic tank by such a visible building,” Clay said.

With the help of contractor Rainstorm Solutions, the decision was made to bury the tank and run a pipe to the agriculture facility, which provides some additional benefits besides being out of sight.

“You’re not battling algae because there’s no sunlight getting in there,” Clay said. “The water stays cooler. It’s a dry system, so there’s no water hanging out in a pipe directly next to a building. It will be easier for the maintenance crew when they’re mowing, and pipes are less likely to freeze underground.”

The end result is stormwater rerouted to the chicken coop, so it can be used for cleaning the coop and watering plants grown by Ag classes.

Like Clay’s work on the Campus Stormwater Program? We do too! Donate today to support more green stormwater infrastructure projects at public schools across the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds!