Al and I got a rain barrel this week. For $85, we got the barrel, the spigot, instructions and a very informative lecture – not just on how to use the rain barrel, but about the threats to safe drinking water in Pennsylvania and what we all can do to protect our water resources.
The most important thing we learned is why our rain barrel is important. We thought it was just a way of saving money during summer dry spells when we have a lawn and garden to water. We hope it will be that, but it has the even more vital function of reducing the load on our sewer systems.
Water that runs off your roof into a downspout can contribute to storm sewer overload. Storm sewer overload results in storm water being diverted into a Combined Sewer System, leading to Combined Sewer Overflow: the discharge into our groundwater, rivers and streams of storm runoff mixed with untreated sewage. Yuck!
Our rain barrel will allow us to collect rain water that otherwise would have gone into storm sewers, and then use it to water our yard during dry spells. Rather than contributing to sewer overload, the collected rainwater will seep through the ground and return to our water supply filtered by soil and roots, as nature intended. Now I feel virtuous as well as thrifty!
We learned many other ways to help protect our water resources. Most of them are pretty easy, and Al and I will be putting them into practice in the coming months. Here are a few:
More information is available from the Pennsylvania Resources Council. I strongly encourage you to check out their intranet site.
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