Rain barrels and water conservation

My neighbor was setting up rain barrels this week so I wandered over to see what was involved - as it turns out, not much. He had two barrels up and ready to go in about 30 minutes. And all the while, he was giving me the sales pitch about how much water he was saving, why it was a good conservation move and how just a few years ago in some western states, it was illegal to use rain barrels. Something to do with down stream water rights - gives you an idea how the lack of water could lead to major disputes between neighbors. On the other side of the “water harvesting” issue, some states and cities give tax credits to encourage using rain barrels as a way to limit rain water run off to the sewer system and reduce peak water demands in the summer.

There is a formula, using the square footage of the roof area, to figure out the number of gallons of run off for any specified level of rain fall. The basic idea is that one inch of rain on a 1000 sq. ft. roof yields about 600 gallons of water – that’s a lot of free water.

Rain barrels come in all different sizes and shapes – you can buy them ready to use or you can build your own and pretty is not a requirement. My neighbor told me that last year he used about 650 gallons of rain water for his gardens, newly planted trees, potted plants, washing the car and a variety of other clean up chores. Can you drink it? Not recommended but you could use it to flush a toilet if the water was off for some reason. Check the internet for more information.

For a Village that wants to be green and a model of conservation, maybe we should see more rain barrels in use this year.

A. Reader