Rain barrels are a fantastic way to reduce rainwater runoff and lower your water bill. Haven’t heard of these yet? Living in this climate, you should have. Rain barrels are a very simple solution that can have big results.
So what are rain barrels? They are exactly what they sound like. A rain barrel is a container that collects rainwater during a storm and stores it for later use. Most barrels are placed below a gutter drain, so that the water from your roof’s gutters goes into the barrel during a rainstorm.
So why save up water? The Tampa-bay area has a strange climate in the summer. We go through periods of drought and heat following by sudden downpours. This is the perfect climate for rain barrels. During a storm, streets and drains are often overwhelmed by the amount of water coming down. Storm water runoff can cause problems when it all hits the streets at once. It is helpful to the entire city for you to use a barrel and save some of that water from hitting the storm drains. It may not seem like much, but if enough people got on the bandwagon and set up a barrel, our drainage system would be under less pressure.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.