Opinion: America Should Harvest a Trillion Gallons of Rainwater

Over the weekend, Burning Man attendees were forced to shelter in place when the usually-parched Black Rock Desert got roughly 3 months’ worth of rain in 24 hours. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary dropped as much rain on some inland areas of Southern California in a single day as they would typically receive in an entire year. In an age of Western megadroughts and dangerous decimation of groundwater throughout the country, recent storms underscore the importance of investing in the capacity to manage, collect, and store water.