Bandera Independent School District
Overview
- Category: Educational
- Application Sponsor: Brad Flink, Drafting and Building Trades Teacher
- Organization Location: P.O. Box 727, Bandera, Texas
- Activity: Built a rainwater collection system to water the baseball fields at the high school
Background:
From 2011 to 2013, the Building Trades, Drafting, and Agriculture Mechanics classes worked together to design and build a rainwater harvesting system to water the high school baseball fields. The students designed and built two 42,000-gallon cisterns, a pump house, pipes to the existing irrigation system, and a conveyance system that runs from the parking lot to one of the cisterns. In May 2013, one cistern caught 240,000 gallons of water, which was used for irrigation.
The project was funded by grants from the Hal and Charlie Peterson Foundation, the Lower Colorado River Authority Community Development Partnership Program, Bandera Independent School District Education Foundation, and other local contributors. The students provided all of the labor during class time. The total cost to the school district was less than $10,000 and the estimated water savings for 2013 from this project was about $2,000.