North Carolina Bank Goes Green

Story and photos by American Aquascapes Inc.

Going green can help your bottom line in the business of water garden installations, irrigation and landscaping. Water is a precious commodity that often does not get the recognition it deserves. By being resourceful, we can harvest water to flourish in ways that most people do not comprehend.

A view of the waterfall and stream

A view of the stream to the reflection pool Click here for slideshow.

Rainwater harvesting was first brought to my attention at an Aquascape inc. seminar in Atlanta. Ed Beaulieu opened my eyes to the resource of harvesting rainfall to make water gardens attractive, relaxing and self-sustaining. The harvested rainwater can be used to irrigate the landscape, top off swimming pools and hot tubs, wash cars and more.

After attending classes on rainwater harvesting, I began educating our customers about how they can help the green movement at home. Within two weeks, an architect who was building the first LEED branch of Capital Bank in Hope Mills, N.C., contacted us. He wanted us to help him build the ultimate "green bank" in our area.

We designed a 15,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system to collect rainfall from the bank's 5,000-square-foot roof. The basin had to be 20-feet by 25-feet by 6-feet to collect the average 15,000 gallons of monthly rainfall from the roof.

The soil was so sandy that working with it was like trying to build a massive sand castle. We over-dug the basin by 5 feet in both directions to combat the collapsing walls of sand. We meticulously installed our geotextile underlayment and liner, and then we added an extra layer of geotextile underlayment for added protection to the liner.

With the help of Jon Sharpe and Brad Comer of STI and Sean Bell of Aquascape Inc., we built 460 Aquablox for the project. After completely filling the basin with Aquablox, we carefully backfilled against them. This brought our basin back to ground level. The Snorkel and Centipedes installed in the basin house two 8,000-gph pumps.

Once we completed the basin, it was time to hide the massive reservoir. We covered half of the basin with liner, so we could build the waterfall and stream directly over top. We brought in one truckload of packable fill dirt and one truckload of 26 tons of native natural stone.

In a full afternoon, we sculpted and rocked a natural, beautiful 4-foot-high waterfall using medium and large boulders. When the water passes the falls, a 20-foot stream meanders into an 11-foot by 16-foot reflection pool, which covers much of the basin, and holds an average of 6-inches of water.

As the water moves through the reflection pool, it appears to disappear over an edge. This edge drops the water back down to the 15,000-gallon reservoir hidden below.

From the reservoir, a 1.5-inch pipe pulls water by an irrigation pump back out of the system to water the beds and grassy areas of the landscaping. This greatly reduces the amount of city water the bank uses, with potential savings of $180,000 annually.

Capital Bank held its grand opening in October 2010, and about 300 people attended the event. The community was impressed. Though the rainwater harvesting system was a small part of the LEED Project, it took the focus and helped the bank gain a Silver LEED rating.

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North Carolina Bank Goes Green

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