Barrels of fun.
Water is everywhere. When looking at an image from space we
see that our planet has more water than land. Less than three percent of Earth’s
water is fresh water. Icecaps and glaciers contain over sixty eight percent of
that fresh water and thirty percent is located in ground water. This leaves
only 0.3 percent for lakes, rivers and swamps. That’s a lot of percentages to consider
so to make it easier we will focus on the fact that more than 99% of all the
water on our planet is unusable by mammals, including us. With all this
competition for fresh water we can look at one simple and cheap way to conserve
this precious resource.
When setup correctly rain barrels will function
without difficulty or maintenance and be full of fresh water when we require
it, provided it has been raining. Let’s look at their setup first. The typical
location to place them is under a downspout so the runoff from our roofs will
fill them directly. I have one setup and connected to one of four drain spouts
on my 900 square foot house. Even with this small size footprint the rain
barrel is usually full after one or two rains depending on how hard the downpour
is. There are many on the market that cost an average of $75 - $100. If you are
concerned about the look and not worried about the expense these can be
purchased and setup quickly and easily. If you are like myself and not made of
money or would rather “do it yourself” there are many plans easily found.
Attached is a plan for one similar to the barrel in my backyard for $15 dollars
and a little elbow grease. Rain barrels can be linked together to have a large
amount of water ready and available.
One may wonder though, “Why should I bother” or “Is it
really that helpful”. When you turn on your outside faucet the typical flow
rate is 10 gallons per minute. If you have worked in the yard and want to wash
your tools off this is a perfect time to use your rain barrel. When you have a
dry day and need to water your backyard garden you are able to use this water
that is free and ready rather than depleting the amount available to other
resources. After setting up my rain barrel in my yard I discovered another use
for this water. In my neighborhood most of the houses are over 100 years old.
This means the plumbing going to these houses are also that old in some areas.
We had a water main rupture that interrupted water available to our house for a
day. Not to worry, we had 55 gallons of fresh water waiting to be used. Quick
boiling or treatment and this water was as good as coming out of the tap.
Matthew Hamilton
Sources
http://www.pikeconservation.org/Forms/27818%20Every%20Drop%20Counts%20Water.pdf
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