Mall Installs Rain Cistern

Sweet Apple Village in Roswell, Ga. will feature a 60,000 gallon cistern as the centerpiece of a stormwater retention system. The developer of the $21 million mall estimates he’ll save approximately $80,000 a year on water. If that is the case, he said the $160,000 collection and filtration system will pay for itself in two years. photo: Picasa Web Albums user fleming

Before putting $400,000 worth of landscaping in the ground, developer Robb McKerrow had to make sure the foliage would stay alive during drought conditions.

So before the foundations of Sweet Apple Village in Roswell were poured, thousands of feet of underground piping created a rainwater collection and filtration system for the future open-air mall.

The $21 million project is being built at the corner of Etris and Hardscrabble roads by Cornerstone Development Partners LLC. Locally owned restaurants and retailers are the target tenants in the mall. Koo Koo Bear, a local kids furniture and room decor shop and Tara Humata, a Mexican-themed restaurant, have committed to space. The first stores are expected to open in May 2009, said McKerrow, vice president of Cornerstone.

The nerve center of Sweet Apple Village’s water collection system is a 60,000 gallon underground cistern near the center of the development, and two retention areas on the eight-acre site. There’s also a filtration system that will clean the water before it is used for watering plants.

Retention ponds, cisterns and other water collection systems have become increasingly popular in drought stricken Georgia, said Gray Kelly, director of sustainable developments for Southface Energy Institute, an environmentally focused nonprofit based in Atlanta. Kelly said what McKerrow and other commercial developers in the area are doing isn’t new, but it is becoming more commonplace.

McKerrow estimates he’ll save approximately $80,000 a year on water. If that is the case, he said the $160,000 collection and filtration system will pay for itself in two years. He also estimates the development will save almost 2.2 million gallons of water per year.

The seven buildings that make up the development will have approximately 71,000 square feet of rooftop, which will produce enough water to take care of the landscaping after a moderate rain, McKerrow said.

When it rains, water from the rooftops will be directed through a series of gutters and pipes into the underground filtration and storage system. Once the water has been cleaned, it will remain in the cistern until it is pumped out to be used by the sprinkler system.

McKerrow said an inch to an inch and a half of rainfall could produce more than enough water to irrigate the landscaping for a week.

Roswell city officials are glad that developers like Cornerstone and McKerrow are taking a few extra steps to conserve water.

And environmental advocates like Southface and the Sierra Club are excited that more builders are incorporating such measures into construction plans.

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution