“Into each life some rain must fall.”

So said poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. At PCC Edmonds – opening this month – that’s a very good thing indeed.

Rain falling on the new store roof and parking lot is being collected and used in two simple, but very efficient, ways. Rainwater harvesting makes perfect sense for a company as committed to sustainability as PCC, and for a building constructed to meet LEED® Platinum standards for resource conservation and systems performance.

Up on the roof
The flat roof on the 34,400 sq. ft. building, of which PCC Edmonds occupies about 27,000 sq. ft., is designed to collect rainwater, which is then stored in an adjacent 5,000 gallon cistern. Water in the cistern is used to flush store toilets, saving 49,000 gallons of water annually that would be otherwise supplied by the City of Edmonds. Landscaping around the building is irrigated or hand-watered with water from the cistern.

Beautiful solution to water pollution
A state-of-the-art rain garden in the middle of the store parking lot is a practical and beautiful way to capture and clean water run-off. At PCC Edmonds, rainwater drains directly from the parking lot into the rain garden. The water picks up car oils and sediments from the lot which are filtered through the rain garden’s plants, amended soil and beach pebble layers. Having been cleaned in the process, the water makes its way back to healthy habitats.

Birds do it, bees do it
Perhaps not what you’re thinking … but they do love rain gardens. The hardy native plants in the PCC Edmonds’ rain garden not only filter rainwater they attract birds, bees and butterflies too, adding to the natural beauty of the garden and to the overall shopping experience. Plantings include the flowering Goatsbeard, Pacific Coast Iris and Wild Ginger, Cinnamon and Sword Ferns, Purple Blow Maple, and the quite appropriately named Umbrella Plant.

Hopefully the PCC Edmonds rain garden will inspire shoppers to consider creating their own. Residential rain gardens don’t have to be very large or complicated, and they are easy to maintain. (Check out www.raingardennetwork.com). You’ll add natural, year-round beauty to your yard, and you’ll make a significant contribution towards helping your community manage storm water drainage and pollution problems.

As for PCC, it’s not feasible to install rain gardens at our other eight locations, but we’ve taken the positive step of installing filters on the storm water drains at those stores to improve the water quality leaving the parking lots.