On August 15th, 2024, members of the RMS team visited several McNeely’s Store & Rental storefronts in western North Carolina to educate their staff and contracting partners about a national rainwater harvesting package project being launched by RMS, Infiltrator Water Technologies, and Advanced Drainage Systems. By sheer coincidence, a member of the McNeely team who was present had purchased a rainwater system for his home from RMS in 2006. Nearly 20 years later, Wayne Hooper still uses his rainwater system, and he plans to expand it soon. RMS CEO and President, David Crawford, was delighted to have stumbled across a long-time customer. Wayne’s satisfaction with his rainwater system served as a terrific testimony during the education sessions at the McNeely’s Store locations.

Wayne was kind enough to sit down with RMS' CEO, David Crawford and Project Manager, Cole Zimmerman for an interview to talk about his long-running system provided by RMS. Below is the transcript of the video or watch the video below. 

Wayne Hooper is a long-time customer of Rainwater Management Solutions who agreed to participate in a video conference interview with RMS CEO and President, David Crawford, and Cole Zimmerman. This article includes the full transcript from their interview. The complete video interview can be found on RMS social media platforms.

David: All right, well, good afternoon, Wayne. This is Wayne Hooper down in North Carolina. My name is David Crawford, CEO of Rainwater Management Solutions. We got Cole Zimmerman on the call today and we were fortunate enough, last week in a trip to Asheville, to meet Wayne at a business there and found out that Wayne happened to be a long-time customer of Rainwater Management Solutions. So, Wayne, thank you for getting on the call with us today and answering a few questions about your system, and we really appreciate it.

Wayne: Yes, no problem.

David: Well, cool. So, Cole, you want to go ahead and ask Wayne a couple questions here and we'll roll on with this?

Cole: Sure thing, I'll get started for us. So, Wayne, what year did you purchase your system from RMS?

Wayne: In 2006.

Cole: Great, and what have you been using the water for since?

Wayne: I started out just using it outside for gardening, I had just non-potable and watering the livestock, and until just a few years ago I've got a really deep well and we switched our home over to totally on the rainwater. It's been about 2 1/2 years now, but the system's been in since ‘06.

Cole: That's great. What sort of benefits have you experienced from having this system on your home?

Wayne: I like just that taking a shower, I've noticed that you use a lot less soap. The water's a lot softer. My wife's noticed like doing dishes, you know, that takes very little soap for dishes. And, and two, with the problems we had with the well, it just gives us a peace of mind, you know, and being in an area that has the rainfall that we experience in Western North Carolina, you know, it's just a very viable water source.

Cole: Do you have any plans to expand your system further?

Wayne: Yes, I'm intending on, I've got a little workshop outside and I'm going to catch the water off of that roof and I'm going to install another 1000-gallon tank which, used for water, will give me about another 1,250 gallons of storage.

David: Have you ever had to clean your tank, Wayne? Because one of the things we tell everybody, you know, RMS carries the WISY filter W-I-S-Y, which is the best in the world. And we tell everyone when they buy a system, they'll never have to empty or clean your tank because the filter does such a good job and it's stainless steel and it's a lifetime filter. What are your comments on that, Wayne?

Wayne: Yes, I can't tell any difference. You know, I take the lid off the tank and looking in the water's just as clear as it was, you know, back in ’06, it's not changed.

David: Well, in our conversation before you said the one thing that you did do is obviously change your filters every now and then, and your UV light once a year, which is required on all UV systems. So, you got good, purified water coming in your house and using it for all those applications and the peace of mind that you don't have to worry about your well, or the contamination, or any of the hardness that's in the well system.

Wayne: That's correct, and if you ever have a pump issue, you know it's right there. It's not 5-foot, 6-foot under the surface. You know, it's easy, easy to access, easy to work on.

David: Well, anybody that's had a well pump knows that's an expensive deal, and you have to have equipment to pull those big pipes and the pumps out, and they're heavy and it's a lot of work. So, I do want to mention that we were at a facility where Wayne has worked and retired from, works part time now at McNeely Companies down in Hendersonville, NC, and that we were there because we're rolling out a national program with Infiltrator Water Technologies and Advanced Drainage Systems to look at that area. But there's a lot of need for alternative water and alternative water sources because the straw has drawn the aquifers down and people's wells are going dry. And it's just a great conservation effort.

So, I can't thank you enough, Wayne, for your time today, and also for your comments, and it's always nice to meet another rainwater harvester out there, which there's hundreds of thousands of them and growing every day. And we look forward to continuing working with your company that you still work with part time a little bit. But thank you for your honesty and giving us a chance to talk today.

Wayne: Well, I was glad to talk to you and I've really enjoyed meeting you. I never thought that I'd meet the owner of the company where I got my water system, but I've been very pleased with the product.

David: Well, we appreciate that, Wayne. When I started 25 years ago, I didn't realize we'd be all over North America, but we're proud of where RMS Rainwater Management Solutions has gone, and the industry moving forward, and the education about people and their water resources. It’s great to be part of a community that is saving our water resources for our grandchildren and people in the next generation, and you’re a part of it as well. And hopefully we'll have more join the team as I'm sure we will as we move forward.

Wayne: Yeah, that sounds great. I'm going to try to spread the word, you know, while I'm at work and then out in the public too, because we've been very pleased with our system. And in our area, there are a lot of wells I've heard of going dry and there's a lot of deep, deep wells that I think have the same issues we have.

 

 

 

 

David with several members of the McNeely team. Names (left to right):

Lou Dalrymple, David Crawford, Luke Fisher, Wayne Hooper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Crawford (left) with Wayne Hooper