It stands almost as tall as a two-story building, spans six feet in diameter, holds 4,000 gallons of water and needs 3 inches of rain to fill it up.
This corrugated, metallic, "iconic" cistern was put next to an environmental group's office on Tucson's North Side this week, to catch the attention of passersby and stir interest in water harvesting.
The Nature Conservancy installed it at a cost of $15,000. It's part of a much larger system of cisterns, basins, berms and other materials already there to store water on the 2.5-acre campus of the conservancy's Tucson office.
The group christened the cistern Friday and hopes to use it as a way to demonstrate how rainfall can be used in a business as well as a home.
"We're trying to educate people about what they can do," said Rocky Brittain, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, which is co-sponsoring the conservancy's Tucson campus as a water-harvesting demonstration site.
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The tank's purpose is symbolic and real. It will also provide water to native and other low-water-use plants on the campus, said James Cook, director of operations for the conservancy in Arizona.
The office complex at 1510 E. Fort Lowell Road already has two smaller cisterns. At the complex's rear are five small and large basins that store rainfall.
Eventually, the conservancy hopes to install a 35,000-gallon tank behind the main office complex, a tank that would be partially buried and serve as an outdoor stage for various events.
The conservancy and UA participants hope to answer key questions about harvesting, such as:
● How much water can the roof of a home or business capture?
● What is the difference between passive and active harvesting?
● What options are there for storing rainwater?
● Is water from the street useable?
Learn more
The Nature Conservancy offers tours of its water harvesting site. A schedule is on its Web site, at www.nature.org/arizona, under the heading, "What's new."
