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The 14,000-square-foot garden behind the Salina Rescue Mission is filled with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, beets and other vegetables.

And with temperatures topping 100 on a daily basis, it's a garden that needs a lot of water.

For the second year, that water's coming from two 5,000-gallon cisterns, tied into the mission's downspouts.

"When we had that two weeks without rain, I thought we were going to run dry," said Tim Stringer, a maintenance worker at the mission. "But we checked, and there was still about seven feet of water -- and then we got more rain."

Steve Kmetz, mission director, said the project started about 2Ôªø1âÑ2 years ago when a donor approached him about donating two used gasoline storage tanks.

Before long, Kmetz said, another donor offered to provide the heavy equipment and labor to bury the tanks and trench the lines from the building to the cisterns, and another donor ponied up for the electric pump and related costs.

"It's wonderful how this community is able to come together," Kmetz said. "People see a need, and it gets taken care of."

The garden is now in its third year, said Chad Young, operations director at the mission.

"We get more than enough for ourselves, so we share with other agencies in town," Young said. Young couldn't say exactly how much the mission is saving on its water bill thanks to the cisterns, and noted that "with 50 or 60 people staying here, that's a lot of showers and a lot of laundry, so we use a lot of water anyway," but the savings is "significant," nonetheless.

Kmetz said it takes about an inch and a half of rain to fill the two tanks; at the end of Thursday morning's watering, the tanks were still nearly full.

Young explained that the drain spouts are connected to underground pipes that drain into the cisterns, and the water runs through screens to filter out debris before it gets to the tanks.

Kmetz also said he ran the idea by city officials before starting, to make sure he was following any rules the city might have on the books.

Gary Hobbie, director of community and development services for the city of Salina, said there don't appear to be any rules against it.

However, he said the city would want to make sure the electrical pump is properly wired and grounded. And, as with wells, the cistern can't be tied into the home's regular water system, to prevent untreated water backflowing into the city system.

Hobbie notes that rain barrels and cisterns are a recommended part of "green" building and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.

Besides conserving water, Hobbie said, such systems also help control runoff during heavy rains.

"The city has detention ponds, including an underground storage tank," to temporarily trap rainwater, Hobbie said, and rain barrels and cisterns can contribute to that effort.

"Homes all over town used to have them, buried in the yard," Hobbie said, adding that most have corroded over the years and been filled in with dirt or sand. He has no idea how many might still be in use around town.

"I've got them at my house, and I think they're great," he said of rain barrels.

Not everyone agrees.

In Colorado, the mission's cistern and Hobbie's rain barrels would be illegal.

The Colorado Division of Water Resources' website explains that "Colorado water law declares that the state of Colorado claims the right to all moisture in the atmosphere that falls within its borders."

Two years ago, Colorado changed its water laws to allow a limited number of people who rely on wells for water to apply for permits to capture rain.

Even with a permit, the restrictions are fairly strict.

For example, a person with a well permit for "household use" would not be allowed to capture rain for an outdoor garden, because an outdoor garden isn't part of the definition of "household use."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by email at mstrand@salina.com.

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