You would think that the local gov would offer rain barrels to catch the water to help during the drought. Good cause for anyone who knows someone in politics to take up like they put out the recycle bins. I would pay a small fee on the barrels as a deposit to make sure they get returned if you didnt use them anymore.
Jill

I'd be happy to buy rain barrels from the local water works, if they'd deliver them (S&H for rain barrels bought online can be steep.) If I cannot find a company to install a cistern, I plan to buy 10 - 12 rain barrels, 75 to 80 gallons each, and connect them to various downspouts to feed hoses and sprinklers. We'll just bypass the irrigation system. We used just two rain barrels at a previous house, during an earlier drought, and that helped to save quite a few new shrubs.

Badin, have you considered having a backhoe dig a hole and lining it with pond lining? ALAGASCO has dug 3 huge holes in my yard recently and it only took a few minutes. A gallon is 231 cubic inches. 231" x 1200 gal = 277200 cubic inches divided by 1728 cu inches in a cubic foot = 160 cu foot hole. A hole 6 x 6 x 6 = 216 cu feet which would be 1620 gallons. I think that is a managable size and you can easily line a hole that size.