Installing a rainwater harvesting system can be as simple as catching gutter runoff in a barrel hooked to a hose for your garden, or as high-tech as the above image of a complete residential harvesting system.
After I spoke last week at Moving Bergen!'s local climate change event in Wyckoff, N.J., I received a flurry of questions related to rainwater harvesting, which I was promoting in my lecture as one of five extremely easy ways to be more sustainable.
Whether these are the most commonly asked questions about rainwater harvesting I can't say, but anyone who's been in doubt about when and how to get started might find the following information helpful:
Unfortunately,
yes
. As insane as it seems, laws restricting property owners from diverting water falling on their own homes have been on the books for a long time. And with
record
droughts
seen across the United States and globe, all falling water now has a premium on it. Utah, Colorado, and Washington each have their own sets of collection restrictions, which vary among regions and legislators.
To see what the deal is in your state, you'll have to c
heck up-to-date guidelines
. But in general, if you're installing a small system on your home, you're in the clear. If you're going to be outfitting a larger system for, say, a business (i.e. carwash) or a more expensive residential setup (for your showers, sinks, and toilets as well as your lawn a la the above illustration), then you definitely want to check with your local zoning enforcement officer to make sure you're in compliance.
A basic rainwater harvesting system can be created using totally upcycled materials, like an old gutter and downspout that was discarded, and any sized drum (at Better Farm we used old iodine tanks from a dairy farm that we thoroughly cleaned out). If you want or need to buy new, the
National Tank Outlet
has a great selection of tanks. You can get any gutter system from your local hardware store. If you're not much for DIY work but would really like to get involved,
Loomis Tank
sells full systems—just make sure you check with your local zoning officer before you invest a bunch of money in something that might not be allowed in your town.
The simple answer is, in the case of water you're using for plants, you don't. The rainwater system we have at Better Farm is extremely basic: water runs from the gutter to the downspout to the holding tank. The tank is outfitted with a spigot, which we hooked onto a hose that runs into the garden or greenhouse, depending on the day. For other uses with your rain water, you might want to look into filtration systems. Check out
Rain Harvest Systems for a look at cutting-edge filtration components
.
Above-ground rainwater tanks have to be emptied in the winter (generally done simply by opening the spigot on the barrel) or outfitted with a heater. Larger installations may have underground tanks, filters, and water-carrying pipes that are laid below the frost line. For smaller setups, you can simply leave the spigot open during the warmer daytime hours to flush your barrel. Winter ice melt is nitrogen-rich and excellent for indoor plants, so be sure to catch what you flush in a watering can! But don't forget to let the cold water reach room temperature before feeding indoor foliage. Just make sure you have barrels that can withstand the extreme temperatures.
Please send any more questions or comments to me at nicole.caldwell@betterfarm.org.
