There's something dripping in Dripping Springs and one man is bottling it up and putting it in stores.
Richard Heinichen is soaking up a profit selling rainwater, or as he calls it, "fresh-squeezed cloud juice."
In the small Hays County town, many people rely on their wells for drinking water, but because of the sulfur-like taste they're now turning to rainwater straight from "Tank Town" and its "mayor," Heinichen.
Tank Town is Heinichen's business. It's 10 acres of rainwater collection systems, and Heinichen has installed hundreds of them around Hill Country. The fiberglass tanks provide a number of ways for people to use rainwater for their house.
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Rain water
A Dripping Springs man is bottling rainwater and selling it.
 
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"I wanted to do this because of a quality of life issue. Rainwater gives you a better quality of life," Heinichen said.
One day, while installing a tank across town, Heinichen had an epiphany.
"I filled up my thermos in the morning and it was a hot July day and I ran out. I had given some water to some helpers and it didn't even enter my mind to go into a store and buy a bottle of water so I went all the way home," Heinichen said.
That's because Heinichen was used to drinking "fresh-squeezed cloud juice." He decided to start bottling rainwater before it hits the ground and call it "Rain Water."
"I really like it. A lot of the bottled waters don't have much of a taste and this one has a little bit of a taste. I really enjoy it," fan Ron Connell said.
To Heinichen the concept seemed so obvious, but no one else in America had ever thought to bottle rainwater. After getting federal and state environmental approval for his triple-filtered rainwater, it is now at Whole Foods and Central Market.
"It's naturally soft. It never hits the ground and it's the way water ought to be," Heinichen said.
