Why harvest rainwater?

A few comments on the link - first the quote followed by comments:
1) Municipal water supplies are often tainted with chemicals that kill bacteria and other organisms to make the water "safe" for human consumption.These chemicals and other "preservatives" effectively kill the water and quite effectively poison our plants.

Comments - One of those nice stories people like to tell possibly but no or very little truth in it. Exactly what poisons are there present in municipal water?

2) A simple gutter draining into a barrel will capture over 100 gallons of water on a 10'x20' surface with a half inch of rain.

Comment - must have different rain there - İ calculate 232 liters or about 60 gallons.

3) Can we produce truly organic food without rainwater?
Comments - One has to be careful with this type of statement - basically it is 100% wrong.

4) If we pollute nature's water resource, it is no longer organic.

Comment - Pray tell what it is then? Maybe not so desirable or OK to use but not organic?

5) Right now, U.S. farmers receive water at 2% the cost of the general public.  The 
government subsidizes the additional 98% of the cost so that water production facilities 
are paid.  We will continue to bear the cost of production of our food, poisoned with 
chlorinated water, until we learn to control our consumption, harvest our own water, so 
that the resource is more readily available and less of it is needed for residential 
purposes.

Comments - İ doubt the cost figures are correct whatsoever! No farmer uses chlorinated water - this is silly cafe talk and nothing more.

İ am not sure this web site has anything correct. Maybe chatter among the far out bunch but that is all. 

When catching rainfall you want to be sure to let the catchment area wash down before capturing water. Nasty stuff in the air settles on all surfaces during dry periods and needs to be cleaned off before the water is useful. 

Edited by Russ - 1/12/10 at 10:35am

Snake oil Salesman

I pretty much agree with Russ on all counts. Good ol' tap water is safe in many areas, you can check water quality for yourself if you live in the U.S, and if it's safe for humans to drink I highly doubt it'll kill our plants. Also, rain barrel water amounts do vary by area - trust me I've lived in both New Mexico and Oregon and the difference is HUGE.

I do believe in harvesting rain water for cleaning, plants, and so on, BUT your article is full of paranoia type banter devised to get people on board with rain barrels vs. using real benefits like cost savings and basic conservation. When people get too scared of H2O they do things like buy bottled water and water filters that are hard, if not impossible to recycle, both of which are a drain on the earth. Some people should look for alternative water because their water is truly problematic, but many people have adequate to safe drinking water.

Oregon (west of the Cascades) is the best place for rain barrels - tropical areas would often be great as well.

Here in western Turkey it is either raining or not - Once it starts to rain in October you no longer water anything outside. That continues until May when it stops raining - probably until October.

Once your barrel goes dry the first time you are out of business. 

I love the rain. People not from here usually get really upset over all the wetness but I guess I'm used to it (addicted to it). When I lived in NM I was miserable. It barely ever rained and when it did it was dusty, not clean rain. I seriously think I got the opposite of seasonal affective disorder - I was so SICK of the sunshine. Moving back to OR was smart for me. Although I like Humboldt too - lots of rain there as well. Turkey sounds like it has a semi-decent rainy season, but it might be nicer spread out all year :)

Hi Samlei72, The rainfallnow.com site is just full of wrong information.  

İ am not sure what their game is but facts don't seem to be involved.

rainfallnow.com site is just full of wrong information... agree 100%

But... try working for a utility for a little while.
- your turn to go fish some rats out of the reservoir
- deal with storm-event intake turbidity 10,000 x maximum allowable limit
- you set the hypo-chlorine injection rate at what?
- an excavator just hit both the sewer and water line... late on friday afternoon
- logging in the intake watershed... they can't do that!... oh, they can.

My buddy Kerry used to run the municipal water. he quit & now runs a business that specializes in in-house water purification systems. He is a great salesman... does well.

An array of roof-drain water-barrels for storing rain-water for the home garden is a very beautiful thing.

M

We are having a Jennifer day here - grey & drizzling - at least it is not cold - about 46 F!

İ remember camping on the Deschutes river in Central OR 40 years back. Got up before daylight and got coffee water from an eddy by the campsite. Later when the sun was up you cold see a dead raccoon floating in the same eddy - decided to ignore the thing!

Water purification - For the things mountain described you can either chlorinate, use UV and or reverse osmosis. None of which is cheap to do in the home and typically there would be far better control in a municipal facility. Filtration would be of little or no use for anything biological but would take care of turbidity.

Rain catchment - Sometime back there was an article on the oil drum (found one pearl in tons of dross) about rainwater catchment. Quite good and in Tuscon at that where it really would matter.

http://local.theoildrum.com/node/4185

Ah Russ And Jennifer
You are quite a where that we are running out of clean drinkable water right?
yes there  are manmade chemicals in rainwater, but our bodies are so full of those chemicals anyway.
You have heard of communities in California  collecting rainwater by the cistern system ?
Those cisterns save a big run off in to the saaller streams ,then creeks and rivers. Thus posibly sending less pollutents into that glass of water you drink from the tap.
And if nothing else that trapped water can be used  to green the lawns,thus not wasting city water.
Is Not water one of the very necessities of all life?What are the amount of days that a human can live without water. It is way less then food right?

Yes I remember rain barrels. My grandmother use to wash her hair  with that rainwater.
She lived to be 93  and still had thee thickest mostly black hair.
My one sister at her first housse had a rain barrel. I remember she used it to water her garden
for a few years. I stiill  remember the taste of those tomatoes YUM.
and this was in the later 1950's yet, before we had any bad thought about any man made chemicals.
Yep ,Joan will be 80 years old come November. Still active but only plants flowers anymore.
ME and rainwater?
I love the rain. Still walk in it the harder it rains the betterf I like it.
Ever smell the air after  a rainstorm? and listem to the birds singing.
Almost heaven! for me that is.
not far  from me is a place where tadpoles   come up in the spring after the snow melts or there is alot of rain in a short time.
my son use to collect a few and we would watch them grow.
Now I just get a thrill to see them in their little puddlles.
Kids today seem not to bother with them anymore.
Come fall we get the prettist chorus of tree frogs calling.
There is something about their call that relaxes me so much.
yep they surviive on rainwater without man adding chemicals.
Heck, I still am know  to get an occasional  handful of watter from the local stream..
It hasn't sicken me yet.
Maybe this year I will collect and wash my hair with rainwwater.
In honor of grandma
Good Day To You All
         Mike

I really believe that harvesting rain water is an important part of helping our planet. We need to all do our part. Our earth needs us.