Chris Moss

Sublimation is the conversion of matter between solid and the gaseous phases with no intermediate liquid stage. The opposite of sublimation is “deposition”, where water vapor changes directly into ice—snowflakes and frost.

Climate change is altering the way snow enters the water cycle.

In January, as I looked out on my deck, I noticed that the snow on the glass table was decreasing but there was no water on the table. The snow was evaporating directly into the air in a process of sublimation. This process also occurs in the mountains of the Cascadia Range in the western United States, as Tim Smedley describes in The Last Drop – solving the World’s Water Crisis.  So, not only are snow packs declining because of low precipitation, also they are evaporating at a greater rate. 

Snowpack sublimation means less melt water. Less melt water will lead to dry streambeds earlier in the year and less water will enter the “interflow” level under the ground.  The interflow water soaks down to an impermeable layer and starts to fill the spaces underground.  At some point it will “level off” into what we call the water table, that point where we find water if we dig far enough into the soil.

If you use a domestic well system you know exactly where the water table is in reference to your water pump down the well. If you measure or “log” your well, you can easily guess if your water is going to run out as the water table around the well drops down over the summer.  You become very aware of your water use when you log your well and start to see the water table dropping.

You cannot fill a well up with hauled water. It simply disperses into the ground.  If your well goes dry you must find another way to bring water to your home.  For an increasing number of people in the Sooke, East Sooke, Otter Point, Shirley and Jordan River areas, this usually means buying water or having it hauled to your house from Sooke.  To use it, however, is a different story.

Some people haul their own water and use it directly from their small pickup truck tanks.  Others opt to install a large cistern tank and have it professionally plumbed into their homes.  Both can be expensive propositions, especially if they are used to “free” water from their wells.

In Sooke, rainwater is in abundance during our winter months, even if the rain comes down in shorter but heavier periods. Harvest that rain into a large cistern plumbed into your house system with the same filtration and UV light that you would use for well water, and you have a free supply of water to get you through the summer!  Well, free after the purchase and installation costs of making it all happen. 

The cost of buying and hauling water will only increase over time, and that’s a continuing expense. You pay for a rainwater system once, and even with upkeep costs, it will soon pay for itself. 

If building codes required rainwater harvesting, every house would have potential for water self-sufficiency without the annual well-hauled water shuffle.