136 136 EATINGWEATINGWELL ELL JULY/AUGUST 2019JULY/AUGUST 2019
Harvesting
Water for
Urban Farms
A MILWAUKEE NONPROFIT CAPTURES
STORMWATER TO HELP THE CITY GROW.
BY LINDSAY CHRISTIANS
THE SITUATION
In 2012, the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
announced an exciting plan: to transform
vacant lots and foreclosed homes into urban
farms and gardens. But these gardens would
need water, and city fi re hydrants weren’t
designed to be under continuous pressure
from farmers. Meanwhile, Midwestern
summers were trending toward more intense
rain events. Summer 2010 was particularly
bad. Flooding was so severe that parts of the
interstate were closed and basements were
covered in sewage. Environmental engineer
Justin Hegarty wondered, “How can we
capture rain and supply it as a water source
for urban agriculture?”
WHAT HE DID
Hegarty spearheaded a master plan that
would use bioswales, curved ditches with
plants, soil, rocks and metal mesh, to fi lter
rainwater on its way to an underground
cistern. Solar-powered pumps would bring
the water back to the surface to irrigate
plants. Software would monitor the entire
system, checking for rain and regulating the
water level in the cistern. To put his design
into action, Hegarty co-founded Refl o in
- The nonprofi t helps design, fund and
construct local, sustainable water projects.
WHY IT’S COOL
Refl o has built 36 projects so far in the
Milwaukee area, including turning asphalt into
green spaces for city schools and bringing
fi ltered stormwater to urban farms. One happy
client is Cream City Farms, an urban learning
farm on an acre-plus of formerly contaminated
land. Refl o worked with the city and the metro
sewage district to install a 40,000- gallon
cistern, fed by bioswales on the farm’s
perimeter. This lessens stormwater issues like
sewer backups in the neighborhood and gives
farmer David Johnson water to irrigate his
melons, squash, cucumbers and leafy greens.
“I basically have an endless supply of water,”
Johnson says of the cistern. “It’s a godsend.” EATINGWELL® (ISSN 1046_1639), July/August 2019, Volume XVIII, No. 6, is published 10 times/year in January/February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October, November and December by Meredith Corporation, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309-3023. Periodicals postage paid at Des Moines, IA, and at additional mailing offi ces. Subscription prices: $24.95 per year in the U.S.; $29.95 (U.S. dollars) in Canada; $34.95 (U.S. dollars) overseas. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to EATINGWELL, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508. In Canada: mailed under Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40069223; Canadian BN 12348 2887 RT. © Meredith Corporation 2019. Your bank may provide updates to the card information we have on fi le. You may opt out of this service at any time. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
TOM LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY
Justin Hegarty sits
outside the Fondy
Farmers’ Market
where Refl o helped
implement a storm-
water management
strategy that helps
keep polluted
water from over-
fl owing into the
Milwaukee River.
Hold your
phone’s
camera over
the smart
code to
watch our
new Food
with Purpose
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