“No, it’s not a big barrel of oil, but its contents are just as valuable to us,” reads a sign by the 5,300-gallon cistern at The Shops at La Palmera in Corpus Christi. Staff Photo
An old-fashioned, albeit shiny new, cistern recently installed at The Shops at La Palmera filled with 5,300 gallons of water over the last week. Now ready for irrigation needs when dry weather dominates, the cistern will provide the landscape needs for The Shops for one full week, said Trademark Properties spokesperson Sarona Winfrey.
“It was just getting cranked up when all the rain came and filled it right up,” Winfrey said. “If we get a stretch when we don’t get any rain, we can use the cistern water rather than city water.”
Standing tall, shiny and proud between Big Lots! and T.J. Max, the silver silo of water collects run off from a 74,200-square-foot roof. A screen on top filters out debris, while a pump systems connects it to the shopping center’s irrigation system. Every 1,00 square foot of roof collects 600 to 640 gallons of water for every inch of rain, Winfrey said.
“That means we can fill up eight or nine tanks potentially of that size, if we get one inch of rain,” she estimated.
For the moment, however, the cistern at The Shops is the only such system in the area. According to the installation company, Spec-All Products, Inc. of Austin, the only other similar system is in a residential section of Rockport. A hotel near Oso Bay may incorporate one into new development there.
Water savings at La Palmera
The Shops joins La Palmera in water conservation efforts. The indoor mall saves nearly 3,000 gallons of water each day by using low-flow toilets and faucets.
“That’s enough water saved to fill up 100 bathtubs a day,” Winfrey said. “That’s a reduction in water use of roughly 46 percent through the use of high-efficiency fixtures including lavatory faucets, urinals, and toilets.”
The fountain in center court re-circulates 1,000 gallons of water approximately 28 times every day, she added. And by using native and adapted plants, drip irrigation for all areas except lawns and automated controllers with rain and freeze sensors, La Palmera uses about 50 percent less water for irrigation than standard developments of this size — saving 356 gallons a day.
"What we can do at the mall for water conservation has different elements than what we can do at The Shops,” Winfrey said. “There, the stores are more individual. At La Palmera, we can control the water usage in the public restaurants and fountains."
Now three years into a drought, the city of Corpus Christi will need more such conservation measures across the region. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, rainfall in 2015 is expected to be below normal. Summer predictions say temperatures will be hotter and the weather drier than usual, despite a hurricane threat expected in late July. More rain than usual is expected in September, the Almanac continues, due to late season hurricane threats.
