Rainwater Harvesting

Like a Doug fir forest, the Bullitt Center re-uses water and returns excess to the soil.

• 100% of the water used in the Bullitt Center comes from captured rainwater.
• Greywater is treated and re-used in the vacuum-flush toilet system. Excess greywater is returned to the soil to help recharge the aquifer.  

The Bullitt Center is designed to help restore the ecological processes of the site back to they way they functioned hundreds of years ago when it was a Douglas fir forest.

Like a forest, the Bullitt Center must use only the water it can collect onsite.

Below the solar panels, a parapet roof captures rainwater and brings it to downspouts that carry the water to a 56,000-gallon, concrete cistern in the basement. On its way down, the water is funneled through a vortex filter, which removes large particulates. Next to the cistern is a “day-use tank” that holds 500 gallons of clean, potable water. To create the potable water, the rainwater is filtered through ceramic filters before being passed under ultraviolet light; a small amount of chlorine is added at the end.

The Bullitt Center documented the process to achieve regulatory approval for the rainwater-to-potable water system here.

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