What’s happening in the gardens?

Rainwater Catchment System
The Gardens of Alcatraz project team completed work on a rainwater catchment system in the fall of 2009, just in time for the rainy season.

Other than fog drip and winter rains, Alcatraz Island is without a source of fresh water. Historically, both the military and the federal prison had built cisterns to capture rainwater but these had fallen into disrepair over the decades. Today, the island is dependent on water brought by barge on a regular basis. By using the historic concrete cisterns that recycled water from the former federal prison showers, the new system can capture 15,000 gallons of rainwater, meeting the garden's annual water needs.

WaterSprout Landscape Design and Construction created a gravity-based water-catchment system. Water from the cellhouse roof drains to the downspout and is directed to the historic cisterns. The water passes through a large filter that catches feathers and larger debris and a first-flush diverter prevents the water with smaller particles from being collected. Next, the water is sent through a sand filter where beneficial bacteria neutralize any harmful bacteria. After filtering, the rainwater flows to four new storage tanks.

On the west side of the island and beneath the bathing facilities, provision was made to let the bath water settle and draw it off to be used on the lawn and shrubs.”

Fred Reichel, secretary to Warden Johnston, 1934–41