5 Cities That Want Your Rain Barrel

What better way to save water than putting in a rain barrel—and thanks to these cities, you’ll save money, too!

While two states (Utah and Colorado) are limiting residents' rights to harvest rainwater from their own rooftops, cities across the country are finding the benefit in rainwater use, encouraging residents to collect it and put it to work. Incentives range from free rain barrels to tax credits and reimbursement for rainwater-diversion installments, such as rain barrels, rain gardens and cisterns.

"When coupled with an educational program, rain barrels are a fantastic education and outreach program to engage citizens in storm- water issues,” says Mike Ruck, vice president of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association and cofounder and Chief Water Officer of rainwater-harvesting-system installer Rain Water Solutions in Raleigh, N.C. "Storm water is the leading cause of water pollution in the U.S., and getting people involved in a house-by-house approach can yield very positive results. Not to mention, rainwater is great for irrigation—no ammonia, fluoride, chlorine, et cetera.”

Here are five communities that know what's up (the rain) and are down (in a rain barrel) with putting it to work.

1. Montgomery County, Md.

The county-wide RainScapes Program has designated RainScapes Neighborhoods, which are identified as needing more intensive storm-water management. In these areas, the county is working directly with property owners to install greenroofs, permeable pavement, rain gardens, and rain barrels and cisterns. These projects help slow rainwater runoff, so the water soaks into your lawn or garden instead of going down the sewer and into our streams.

Montgomery County RainScapes Neighborhoods include Glen Echo Heights, Wheaton Woods, KenGar, Stoneybrook/Parkside, Chevy Chase, Breewood, Forest Estates, Garrett Park and Sligo Park Hills. If you own property in one of these areas, you still qualify for rebates of up to $2,500 for rain barrel and other storm-water-management installations. The Montgomery County towns of Gaithersburg and Rockville have individual programs for them, too.

Read more: http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/sustainable-living/green-living/5-cities-that-want-your-rain-barrel.aspx

Rainwater harvesting turns weather into resource

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

While for children, an incoming storm typically brings sighs and choruses of, “Rain, rain, go away”, for property owners and managers with rainwater harvesting systems on-site, however, regular downpours can mean a smaller water bill.

Rainwater harvesting is the ancient practice of collecting and storing rainwater for later use. Modern rainwater harvesting systems work by collecting rainwater, typically from the roofs of homes or institutional, commercial or industrial buildings, storing it in a large tank, and then utilizing a pump and pressure system to distribute the rainwater to connected plumbing fixtures. In the main, still to this day, however, rainwater harvesting is still the simple way of using a rain barrel attached to the downspout of the gutter.

In Britain it was mentioned some years ago that every newly built home was to have a rainwater harvesting system installed the water of which was then to be used for flushing toilets and washing the car, watering the garden, and such like. So far, it would appear though, this has not been implemented.

The modern rainwater harvesting systems can have elaborate treatment methods that use chlorine or ultra-violet (UV) lamps for disinfection, or simply use screens to remove debris like leaves and twigs. Ultimately, the treatment methods employed depend on what the property is using the rainwater for.

What benefits does rainwater harvesting offer property owners and tenants?

Rainwater harvesting systems allow property owners and tenants to use rainwater as a resource instead of having to remove it through roof drains, eaves troughs or parking lot catch basins.

Another benefit is that rainwater use reduces municipal water consumption, which helps cut down on a building’s water bill. It also reduces the need for municipalities to treat and pump water, a process that is both chemically and energy intensive.

Farms and rural households have engaged in rainwater harvesting for centuries but in urban centers it is relatively new.

It must also be considered that while in Britain and Canada and most other countries rainwater harvesting is legal it is not in a great many of US Federal States and in many local areas even if the state does not have a blanket ban on harvesting rainwater.

When harvesting rainwater from the roof it is best not to use it for potable use, that is to say for drinking and cooking, etc., even if the various forms of treatment are used because of materials on the roof that could be dangerous to health and which, possibly, cannot be removed by treatment.

But, even if “only” used for the other uses the savings can be immense and that means saving for your pocket and for the Planet. So, let's go an make some rain barrels and harvest some rain.

© 2013

Who Owns the Rain?

You, rainwater harvesting and the law

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

While in most places collecting rainwater runoff from your roofs is legal and, like in Britain where it is becoming even a requirement to have rainwater capture when building a new properly, which are then part, often, of the grey water system for the house, in some states in the Union it is illegal. So beware.

A rain barrel or two may seem like the perfect solution for watering the garden without waste and without adding to your water bill. But before you build your rainwater harvesting system, though, you might want to make sure that it is legal to do so where you live. There are three states that say the water that falls from the sky belongs to them, not to just anyone.

One of those is Utah, the Mormon State – who would have thought.

Homeowners who want to use rainwater in Utah have to purchase a water right through the state, but Utah Senator Scott Jenkins wants to change all that. He is planning to sponsor a bill that would allow residents to collect up to 2500 gallons of water in their home systems.

As in the other two states where rain barrels are against the law, the Utah law is rarely enforced.

The next one if Colorado where rain barrels are illegal.

Below an extract from the EPA handbook on rainwater harvesting:

Colorado law, for instance has assumed that all rainfall eventually reaches groundwater or surface waters and is therefore appropriated. In the dry regions of the state, however, a study has found that the majority of rainfall on undeveloped lands is lost to evaporation and transpiration and only a small fraction actually reaches surface waters.

The law is a pretty vague as far as penalties, and the state rarely enforces it. The Colorado water laws strikes me as especially fishy, because they seem to love giving water away for free to private interests. According to the Wall Street Journal, this includes:

Oil companies, ski resorts, fire districts and breweries. The international food conglomerate Nestlé has applied for a permit to draw water from a Colorado aquifer and sell it in plastic bottles under its Arrowhead brand.

But it is technically illegal for state residents to collect a barrel or two to water their gardens and residents are breaking the law by setting up a simple rain barrel. There is, obviously, one rule for the ordinary folks and then there is one for those companies. Money sure is changing hands there somewhere.

The third state in this collection, so far, is Washington, where is is illegal to have a large rainwater harvesting setup. It is, however, legal in Seattle.

The City of Seattle obtained a citywide water-right permit to ensure the legality of water harvesting efforts.

For residents in the rest of the state, however, it remains illegal to have a rainwater harvesting setup.

Washington state's Department of Ecology claims the reasoning behind this is that catching the water before it hits the ground robs water rights holders. They call it “impairment.” What water rights?

The Department of Ecology does clarify that “a traditional residential rain barrel” is legal in the state of Washington, but larger cisterns require a special permit.

It seems that rainwater harvesting laws can vary by municipality in other places, too. So, before you go and get those rain barrels and connect them up to get all that nice free water for your garden and to wash the car and the bikes check whether it is allowed where you live? You could be breaking the law if you install any kind of rainwater harvesting system. In some places even a simple barrel is against the law.

While rainwater harvesting is legal and even a nigh on requirement, and it in fact will be a full requirement soon, so I understand, in Britain, and it also seems to be legal in most if not all of the European Union, in the United States, however, you better check with the authorities before you think of harvesting rainwater for you may be committing a serious felony.

Stupid, I know, but...

© 2009
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Rainwater Harvesting in the USA

You would think that you can, without any problem, harvest the water that falls on your roof or land, wouldn't you?

Well, apparently in some federal states of the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, you cannot do such a thing and it is actually a crime.

Ever collected rainwater in a bucket to water the garden? There's a law about that in Colorado and, technically, it says you can't. Now a state senator from Denver wants to allow homeowners to collect water that drains off up roofs up to 3,000 square feet so ranchers and farmers could use it to water livestock and metro area residents could use it to water their lawns and gardens.

Democratic Sen. Chris Romer said the bill, which had its first hearing Thursday, could also be used to fight fires and eliminate the need for more dams and reservoirs by providing "microstorage" of water across the state. However, water interests, including Denver Water, are concerned about the proposal, and Romer asked members of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources & Energy Committee for another week to make some changes before voting on the bill.

I must say that I have never ever heard anything that stupid in my entire life. Oh, well, maybe some similarly stupid things have been heard and read but this is daft in the extreme.

"We shouldn't let 100 years of tradition and law avoid the common sense solution," said Romer, who wants to install a cistern at the house he's building in Denver.

Colorado's water law doesn't specifically talk about buckets or cisterns, but the principle of prior appropriation applies. That means water, including whatever falls from the sky and off your roof, must be allowed to flow downstream to those who have a legal right to use it. So, that means, someone “downstream” from me has more right to the water than do I on whose roof or land the water, in the form of precipitation, whether rain or snow, falls. What about my right as the owner of the property? Excuse me, but this is not just stupid and insane, this is not right – period – regardless of what the law and other such “ordinances” say.

"When it's in the sky it's fine. But as soon it hits the ground, or on the way to the ground, that's where it kind of changes a little," said Doug Kemper, executive director of the Colorado Water Congress. Sorry, I may be a little dense here but how does it change, precisely, Mr. Kemper?

It is time the State of Colorado and its legislators woke up to the fact that (1) the water comes from the sky and is free and you cannot put a price or a law on it and (2) that we must make use of all water that comes our way, rainwater – which could easily be used to flush toilets, graywater – as long as it is gray water and not black water, for watering gardens and lawns (gray water can, if properly collected be also used to flush the toilets), etc. to conserve the scarce resource of water in many places of the USA and elsewhere and even if we do not have a scarcity, as has been the case in the last summer and this winter – so far – in the UK we still should and must harvest rainwater and work on gray water systems.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008