Console · Subsystem reference manual · Rev 11

The five subsystems we run, in the order they usually arrive on a lot.

Each subsystem has a code. Each code has a spec sheet, a price band, a permit path, and the names of the trees, basins, or fixtures it talks to. Click into the code to see the drawing.

Spread of a Ciénega Watershed bill of materials beside a soil-sieve and a Grundfos pressure gauge.

Curb cut and infiltration basin under a young palo verde.

EARTH-1 · Passive earthworks

Curb cuts, basins, swales, infiltration berms

Move water by shaping ground. The cheapest and longest-lived subsystem. Median project $4,400.

$2,400 — $9,800Permit · grading

Two 1,500-gallon polyethylene tanks behind a Tucson stucco wall.

CIS-1 · Active cisterns

Above-ground tanks, controllers, pump-fed drip

Tanks tied to roof downspouts, with controllers that decide when water moves to drip lines. The only subsystem with moving parts.

$3,800 — $24,000Permit · plumbing

Branched-drain greywater outlet feeding a mulched basin around a desert ironwood.

GWY-1 · Branched-drain greywater

Laundry, showers, and bathroom sinks to your trees

No filters, no pumps, no holding tanks. Code-compliant gravity distribution from a stub-out to mulched basins.

$1,400 — $6,800Type 1 reclaimed

Half-inch PEX condensate tubing strapped under stucco on its way to a citrus tree.

COND-1 · AC condensate capture

Evaporator drips routed to your shade trees

Twelve to twenty gallons a day from a typical 4-ton split-system in summer, intercepted at the air handler.

$420 — $1,800No permit (incidental)

Detail of foundation drainage routed away from slab toward a sunken mulched basin.

FNDN-1 · Foundation perimeter

Footings dry, trees fed, twenty feet out

Roof-to-grade detailing that keeps slabs and footings dry while routing water past the drip line to roots.

$1,800 — $8,400No permit (drainage)

How they fit

The shape of a typical Tucson lot

The typical residential build runs three to four of the five subsystems. EARTH-1 is on every lot. CIS-1 appears once we have at least 1,800 sf of contiguous roof we can plumb. GWY-1 is almost universal but smaller — most homes start with laundry-to-landscape and add a shower stub-out later. COND-1 we install on every lot with central air. FNDN-1 we install when grading is wrong, which is often, and we say so plainly during the site walk.

Typical pairings, by lot size and roof footprint
Lot size	Roof sf	Usual pairing	Median build	YR1 capture (gal)
≤ 0.10 ac	≤ 1,400	EARTH-1, GWY-1, COND-1	$4,200	26,000
0.10 — 0.20 ac	1,800–2,800	EARTH-1, CIS-1 (3,000 gal), GWY-1, COND-1	$8,400	62,000
0.20 — 0.50 ac	2,800–4,200	EARTH-1, CIS-1 (5,000 gal), GWY-1, COND-1, FNDN-1	$14,200	110,000
≥ 0.50 ac	≥ 4,200	full five with multiple cisterns	$22,800	180,000+

Capture estimates use the 2025 NWS Tucson 30-year normal of 11.6″ and a 0.85 runoff coefficient on roof area. Greywater contribution assumes one washer cycle per day, Tucson Water average residential use of 80 gpcd.