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Project - Rainwater Harvesting

"ONLY FOUR (4) states severely limit rainwater harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is not “illegal in most states” as some would like to think. State government laws have NOT been “recently changing” to take away people's rights to collect rainwater. There is not some conspiracy by “big government” to “own” the rain." - Feb 26, 2013


Rainwater harvesting regulations state by state

 

While a precursory scroll through some Facebook feeds would lead you to believe that militant government officials are indeed bringing about the force of their SWAT teams to stop you from accessing the rain that falls on your property (other than allow it to pass through), it is apparent that in most locations this may not be the case. Certainly, where I live in Oregon, it is actually encouraged that you harvest your rainwater. You can even find it perfectly legal to utilize a cistern system to fully provide your water needs in the State of Oregon.


[Information regarding the State of Oregon's advice on rainwater retention systems can be found on the Building Codes Division website, a search will take you to the PDF document found here: https://www.oregon.gov/bcd/Documents/brochures/3660.pdf]


My family enjoys pristine water, without fluoride, at our home – in one of the only remaining “major” American cities that does not fluoridate their water. However, we are charged sewer fees by our local utility for every gallon of water incoming, a nominal fee for the assumption that this water will flow into the sewer system. So, in my desire to save a penny here, or stop a buck there, we decided to try out a simple Rainwater retention system.


After touching base with Heart 2 Heart Farms on June 19, 2015, I drove over with my trailer to secure a 275 Gallon “IBC Tote” and a few 55 gallon barrels for various other projects we'll get into later in this blog.

Of course, I had already gleaned the web for resources to find a simple diverter setup, and came across one that is minimally invasive. We rent our home, our landlord is absolutely amazing and enjoys our little projects as much as we do, so I wanted to respect his trust by having as little impact as possible. The best system I could find for this was at the Rain Brothers website [http://store.rainbrothers.com/products/DIY-Rain-Barrel-Construction-and-Installation-Kit-Downspout-Diverter.html] for less than $40! Now the system is less than $30 (at the time this blog was written). That's right, it involved only one hole in our gutter system and the deal was done.


Our house is slightly unique, even in our own neighborhood. As with much of the incredibly popular area in and around Portland, Oregon, our home (and 57 others just like it) was built on what used to be a 4-acre farm. Many of the farms on my commute around town are being sold at ungodly prices to developers who wish only to plant 2x4s and build overpriced McMansions for the droves of people who wish to claim a piece of a comedic television show that gives you the impression that our entire region just needs to “put a bird on it”. That topic is rife with sadness from those of us who've called our region home long enough to be natives if we weren't native to region already, I suppose that'll be another blog.


In any case, our house is not a “conjoined duplex” but the only house that stands on its own. Being built in such tight quarters there is but one southern-facing window and – were we located in the south – would almost be called a “Shotgun House” (a design where the house is narrow in the front, but quite a depth from front to back). This does, however, afford us a lot of rooftop real estate from which to harvest rain. And, since we don't share the gutter system with our neighbor (as in the “conjoined duplexes”) there was no need to touch base with our neighbor on our intent.


Our summers tend to be really dry, so I was initially kind of bummed that there'd be little likelihood that I'd see accumulation in the first few months. That was okay though, because my research informed me that you should probably work to block out the sun from these semi-opaque containers so as to not foster algae growth. Not that I was too worried, because I was only going to utilize the water for gardening, but with weeding what it was I could see why someone wouldn't be inclined to add algae to their gardening regimen.



Much to my surprise, we had a full four days of heavy drizzle (we don't normally see massive downpours the likes of those living south of the 45th parallel), and I decided during one of those drizzles to take my drill set out and install the kit. It took less than 15 minutes and water began to trickle right down as soon as I hooked it all up. It was quite a joy to behold!


It wasn't long before the container was filling up, I had certainly underestimated the impact my roof had on the “minute” amount of rainfall we were having! In the PDF linked above they give you an actual calculator to determine what one might expect to receive in their catchment system, however not being concerned over “regular household use” I could never seem to get anyone to assist me with the measurements necessary to come up with a reasonable theory about what my system would collect. Suffice it to say that by the end of June I had 275 gallons of water waiting for our use.




Of course, as fall came and the season came to a close I drained the IBC tote, grabbed every can of spray paint that I owned, and was set to block off any intrusion of light. Neighbor kids can be a blessing and in their sight what I was about to do was quite entertaining, so like Huckleberry Finn I enjoyed watching them do the lion's share of work on covering up our tote. Of course, one must be a fan of chaos (coincidentally, I am), as you'll not find the attention to detail that most adults crave under these circumstances.



So, there you go, a project that takes less than a day that will provide you years of use, and if you're lucky enough to live in a region as temperate as mine you can keep your water bill down – or, if you are one that considers living off the grid or with an eye on disaster preparedness, there's no other path to more security than assuring you have water available in the event the faucet is no longer cooperative.


 

Jimmy Barrett is an Business Services Professional, working from home with a Family of four. He's enjoying the journey of learning about Permaculture and adding its practices to his own home garden. Please note that opinions expressed by Jimmy Barrett may not be shared by Heart 2 Heart Farms, should you have any questions please feel free to email us directly.

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