Palo Alto is known for its leafy streets and well-manicured gardens, but these green spaces are in jeopardy as the drought persists. With a state mandate to reduce water use by 24% (compared to 2013 levels), Palo Altans who love their gardens are choosing between so-called “drought shame” if they continue to water their lawns, or a kind of ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ where they must decide which part of their landscaping to turn brown and potentially die.
RainDance brings reclaimed water to your lawn or garden
RainDance clients are eager to show that they are drought conscious
But a new company called RainDance is offering a guilt-free solution: use treated waste water to irrigate lawns and gardens through an in home delivery service. RainDance, which is the brain child of Palo Alto native and entrepreneur Chris Zaharias, uses water from the Palo Alto Wastewater Treatment Plant and delivers it to clients using a 2,000 gallon tanker truck. “The water from the treatment plant is otherwise pumped back into the aquifer,” Chris explains, “so we are not diverting any resources, just bringing more efficiency to the process of distributing water to where it is needed.”
An entrepreneurial way to address lack of rain
Although Chris’ background is in software sales, he jumped into the market with RainDance when he realized an environmentally superior source of water for lawns existed just a few miles from his house in Crescent Park. After securing a water tank and working with the Wastewater Treatment Plant to figure out how to fill it, Chris sent out an email to the Crescent Park email list and was immediately flooded with over 100 inquiries from neighbors who were interested in signing up.
He hired Katherine Glassey, a veteran operations guru and CEO, to help him manage the demand and figure out how to scale RainDance to serve more clients and improve the systems for distributing the water. “Our customers are very supportive – they want us to build our business because they like feeling good about their choices,” she said.
Setting up delivery is easy, with pricing dependent on homeowner needs
To set up the service, clients call and arrange for RainDance to come to their home to assess how much water they need and where to put it- e.g., spread on a lawn or targeted on specific landscape features. Based on this estimate, people can choose either weekly or bi-weekly delivery service, with pricing dependent on how much time it takes to distribute the water (lawns take more 
time than landscaping, for example). RainDance offers preferred pricing for clients in Palo Alto due to the company’s local connection and benefits of clustering clients along delivery routes.
Although delivery from RainDance costs more than watering from the hose, for people who are passionate about their gardens, the environment or both, it’s the right investment. Said one Crescent Park client, “RainDance has allowed us to keep our yard green without using very valuable drinking water. It seems very much worth the extra cost for our family.”
Starting in Palo Alto but potential to grow across the state
Chris and Katherine are focused for now on building the residential business for RainDance, but they see potential for commercial clients if the drought persists. “Google spent millions piping reclaimed water directly to its office to irrigate its grass and landscaping,” Chris explained. “Other companies that can’t invest this kind of money may need to turn to services such as RainDance if they want to preserve green space around their buildings.”
To learn more about RainDance or arrange for an estimate for water delivery, visit the company’s website or call 650-935-LAWN. With hundreds of local water treatment plants in California, RainDance is another great idea started in Palo Alto that could end up changing how lawns are kept green across the state.
