In early May, the Alamo Springs Volunteer Fire Department was awarded a $15,000 grant from the Lower Colorado River Authority for the installation of a rainwater catchment system. The attached photo shows the 30 foot diameter foundation constructed by Alamo Springs VFD personnel on Saturday, May 22, 2010. Eventually this foundation will hold a 20,000 gallon cistern attached to the roof of the fire house. With the 40 X 45 addition to the old 
building, we will be able to harvest a large amount of rain water and store it for use by fire trucks. The rainwater will be filtered only and will not be potable. We expect the project will be complete by late June or early July depending on the availability of parts and weather for construction. Then we’ll pray for rain!
UPDATE 7/2/2010
Update 7/2/2010: From Gary Miller. “The system is 100% operational now. The tank holds 20,000 gallons. That sounds like a lot but during an event like the Hope Road fire of last August, we would have needed even more. This system is a major improvement for the fire department and a real asset for the community. We are extremely proud of it and are grateful for all the financial help we received from the LCRA to fund the majority of it.
After it was completed, we obviously did not know when it would rain, so we asked both Comfort VFD and Boerne VFD to help us out with water deliveries so we’d have water to use in an emergency. Comfort brought us ~7500 gallons and Boerne, ~3000. We had half a tank before the rains began. It is now almost 3/4 full [Friday July 2, 4:30 PM]. We figure about 1350 gallons per inch of rain, so 4 more inches of rain will top it off”.