Sustainable Fairfax

Bringing people together to support a vital environment and thriving community

Fairfax Water Conservation Pilot Project

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Marin Municipal Water District LogoUpdate: Pilot in 2010

There has been much discussion about securing the water future for Marin County. MMWD is our main water district and through them we procure 75% of our water from our local watershed and import 25% of our water from outside the county, the average MMWD client uses 140 gallons of water per person, per day and plans are moving forward on a costly Desalination plant to meet a projected future demand and provide during drought. The conservation department and many concerned citizens believe we can live sustainably in our watershed and now it is time to put our money where our mouth is.

Fairfax has been selected by MMWD Conservation Department as just the right town for a pilot program promoting water conservation. Sustainable Fairfax will be will be the hub and main operators of the pilot. Water project staff and volunteers will be approaching every business, school and resident in Fairfax to see “How Far We Can Go” to reduce our water use through technology and behavior.The idea is to focus intensively on one community to increase water conservation to see if that is an effective model resulting in long-term water savings. Education and rebates will be brought to the community through a number of events, staffing at the Sustainability Center, and on a one on one basis.

Our Town Manager and Mayor have met with representatives from MMWD and Sustainable Fairfax to find ways the town can support this effort through modeling and possible resolutions or ordinances.

Marin Clean Energy Action Needed

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Marin Clean Energy logo with tagline "My Community, My Choice"Marin Clean Energy is on it’s way to becoming a reality in 2010! Eight towns and the County voted last fall to join together to set up our community based clean energy system. Now we’re into the nitty-gritty details and you can help all of Marin get the best Marin Clean Energy System we can have.

   MCE has the potential to integrate energy efficiency and local power generation. Energy efficiency is the cheapest ‘clean energy’ available and we would create good local jobs. Public Goods Funds are available to Marin and we should make sure that we get the funding, because Marin Clean Energy can do better Energy Efficiency, Solar, and Low-income programs than PG&E.

Please email your MCE county representative and your MCE town councilor and say that we need to bring energy efficiency and local power generation front and center into all MCE proposals.

About Our Rain Garden

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In 2005, when we began designing our Sustainable Backyard, Fairfax and San Anselmo got hit with the second 100-year flood in 25 years. We believe that climate change is causing extreme weather and raising the sea level, which only means more flooding for us.

What can we do? That is what we asked Geoff Hall and Kamala Bennet of Sentient Design, who were working with us to design a backyard that represented best practices. The said “Water Reclamation” What’s that? For us it meant re-guttering our small house with about 600 square foot roof. Then channeling that water into a 1000 gallon tank. And directing the overflow of the tank into our pond and then into two vernal ponds. Our pond is lined and permanent. Our vernal ponds or swales are unlined seasonal water features. Please check the read more section below to learn more about how you can plant a vernal pond.

Since we set up this system we have found that the first rain of the season fills our tank. We actually found that in an average rainfall year we will be routing 15,000 gallons of water. We have had visits from the Town Council, County Board of Supervisors, FEMA and the Dept. of Homeland Security, MMWD, MCSTOPPP, SPAWN, Regenerative Design Institute, and numerous citizens. We received funding from Marin County Board of Supervisors to make this work possible.

Our system not only demonstrates how to help prevent flooding, it also creates unique microclimates, cleans the water before returning it to our creek systems, it helps to recharge our local ground water system, and we have 1000 gallons of water to use during the summer for topping up our pond or emergencies. In permaculture the water mantra is Slow it, Spread it, and Sink it.

Visit our backyard to learn more. Or check out this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyzNMzk4W0

We also have a rain_garden_brochure for you to view.

Visit the SPAWN site for more info on rainwater harvesting.