Water in the Desert

Kanab is at 5000 ft elevation (1524 meters), in a cold semi-arid climate zone, getting only 13.5 inches (343 mm) of precipitation per year. And Kanab has experienced a severe drought. So the landscaping around the house will obviously be xeriscape, no lawn.

Too little water is a serious issue, but so is too much water. Localized rainstorms are common here, and with the rocky landscape, the water will just run off instead of soaking in, leading to flash floods. This is especially dangerous in narrow canyons, as tragically witnessed by recent deaths and dramatic rescues in Buckskin Gulch. Kanab itself also experienced flooding a few years ago.

Clearly, we don’t want our house to get flooded, especially when building with straw. We’re close to the cliffs, and a rainstorm will send a lot of water our way. Here are some more pictures of that drainage ditch east of our lot. Notice those small trees behind our lot? Evidence that this is a place that naturally gets water.

It’s a serious ditch lined with riprap, designed to handle a 100-year storm. A berm adds some additional protection. We also have to add a berm in the north-east corner of the lot to keep water from that direction from flowing into our property. Here’s part of the engineering site plan (tap on the image to see details):

Finally, we need to mitigate water runoff from the hill in the northwest of the lot. We plan to keep the contours of the hill as close to natural as we can, and will add a small wall to channel water around and away from the house.

Time will tell how often we get a 100-year storm.