44 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I ran across this information while paying my bill-
does your city offer similar incentives??

..........................
The City of Amarillo Water Utility Department offers a financial incentive to encourage the use of rainwater as a supplement to municipal water for irrigation use.  
The Financial incentive will be in the form of a one-time credit on your City of Amarillo utility bill.
Each application will be evaluated on a first come, first served basis.

• Residents will receive a credit of half the cost up to $12 on the City of Amarillo Utility bill for a
  
• one barrel installation.
  
• Residents will receive a credit of half the cost up to $25 on the City of Amarillo Utility bill for a
  
• two barrel or more installation.
  
• ..................
  
• And if not, do you have a rain barrel or other catchment system set up in your home?
  
• Pictures too please.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

We do not have any rainwater recycling in my county that I know of.  It's not offered through our water company at least.  I have no clue if this is done in other parts of the state.  We don't have any rain barrel/catchment system at my house.

I have read that Australia is big on rainwater capture and reuse.  Someone here might know more, but from what my Australian friend said, many houses are fitted with these systems.  Since rain can be scarce, they like to make the most of it.

[steph84]

I would love to have this program in Los Angeles, but we don't get that much rain at all! I have the space for it too! I can see this being an issue if you live in a small area, but it would be such a great way to water your plants.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Easy enough to do, even if you don't get a rebate back.

[MyDigitalpoint]

There is not such incentive in my city, but I discovered how useful is rainwater collection when I discovered it accidentally sometime back when I found my laundry buckets completely filled after being abandoned in the yard for a whole rainy week.

If I could, I would like to build this rainwater storage system



By the way, I read an interesting article on this topic right here.

[zararina]

We do not have such kind of incentive here and if ever there will be, for sure very less rain will fall on the ground. LOL
Yes, I do reuse rain water but I do not have a catchment system. I just place containers under the roof where the rain will fall and reserve that for cleaning purposes like for bathroom and floor cleaning.

[dconklin]

No we do not have any incentive for this here.  This would be cool, but I am not sure that our town would go for this.  May not be the greatest idea here, I see people leaving buckets from rain water out and getting mosquitoes because they don't feel like doing anything with the buckets.  Seriously, people set things outside and forget about them and next thing we know there are mosquitoes growing in the standing water.

I re-use rain water, but many people here just let it sit stagnant until it dries up.

[FamilyTreeClimber]

There is no incentive for it in California that I know of.  However, it would be a wonderful solution to water shortage problems in the inland valleys where Summer temps are mostly in the 95-110 range.  Those people are always struggling to get enough water for everything they do.

dconklin, I think if you have one of these systems it has to be sealed.  It would draw mosquitos just as you mentioned.  We don't have a big problem with mosquitos where I live, but if you leave standing water around, you'll have problems with them eventually.

We don't have anything like this at my house.  We do have our one gutter drain pipe bent so that it drains onto the lawn.  Not the same, but a least, the water isn't wasted.

[dconklin]

FamilyTreeClimber, on 09 July 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

There is no incentive for it in California that I know of.  However, it would be a wonderful solution to water shortage problems in the inland valleys where Summer temps are mostly in the 95-110 range.  Those people are always struggling to get enough water for everything they do.

dconklin, I think if you have one of these systems it has to be sealed.  It would draw mosquitos just as you mentioned.  We don't have a big problem with mosquitos where I live, but if you leave standing water around, you'll have problems with them eventually.

We don't have anything like this at my house.  We do have our one gutter drain pipe bent so that it drains onto the lawn.  Not the same, but a least, the water isn't wasted.

We can walk to the river and usually do every day, that is how close to it we are to it.  It does take a little while for the mosquitoes and if you use the water shortly after it shouldn't be a problem.  The only problem here is many of the people around here let things sit.  I have seen kiddie pools sit with water in them (no filters) for weeks until the water turned almost florescent green and still nobody bothered to walk outside to drain them.  Unfortunately there are people here who just don't care.  Of course I am not speaking for the whole town here, there are many good people too! I just foresee this being a problem here

[Shortpoet-GTD]

dconklin, on 09 July 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

I see people leaving buckets from rain water out and getting mosquitoes because they don't feel like doing anything with the buckets.  Seriously, people set things outside and forget about them and next thing we know there are mosquitoes growing in the standing water.

Tell them to get those little anti mosquito donuts.

[dconklin]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 10 July 2012 - 02:42 AM, said:

Tell them to get those little anti mosquito donuts.

We only had them once a few years ago in our yard, but neighbors get them because they can't be bothered to take care of things and just let them sit outside.  Wish I was exaggerating.  I grow garlic and use garlic in the yard, it keeps the little pests out of our yard! I have not seen these donuts before, do they keep other bugs out too?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

dconklin, on 10 July 2012 - 04:26 PM, said:

We only had them once a few years ago in our yard, but neighbors get them because they can't be bothered to take care of things and just let them sit outside.  Wish I was exaggerating.  I grow garlic and use garlic in the yard, it keeps the little pests out of our yard! I have not seen these donuts before, do they keep other bugs out too?

They are supposedly environmentally safe-(I haven't used them) and forgive this site if it looks spammy
but it provides some answers.
Thanks.
Tires are the worst. A mosquito can have hundred of babies in a very small amount of water.
http://www.walterree...lters-thoughts/

Ok-
back to rainwater capture.
Let's see your homemade pix folks!
I know you have em'.

[QuatreHiead]

I haven't seen anything like this before here, although I believe I will check into it. The summer rains are coming hard, I believe it would be a good idea to do so. Especially since the rain comes off and on and then there are periods of intermittent intense heat. Even if it were to just help out those with watering crops it would be well worth the effort! I suppose they would come to pick up the barrels as well?

[Shortpoet-GTD]

It depends on the property-it can be a large installation-
http://img.directind...stem-190378.jpg
or simple.
http://www.theinnova...g-rainwater.jpg

What I find irksome, is the fact that most systems (large or small) offer round storage tanks/barrels.
Why aren't more square or rectangular units available to fit tightly against the house or other structure?

[Sandra Piddock]

We don't get much rain here, but when it comes, it comes with a vengeance. We have a few buckets scattered around the garden, and after a rainfall, we use them immediately for watering, to avoid the risk of mosquito larvae developing. However, we forgot one small container, and we ended up with larvae. We have tropical fish, so we fed them to the fishes, which also cut down on the need for processed food. Something to bear in mind if you have an aquarium.

[Sugarhill]

The only thing with harvesting water is that in a lot of cities, you do have to check with them to see if it is allowed as some places will try to fine you for going off the grid. It's great when the city announces that they will work with you, but a lot you have to do the digging as it is a slight loss of revenue and the more people do it, the more they would lose.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I know you can't in Colorado, but after the fires, maybe they'll change those laws.
Do you know of other cities or states for example?

[Sugarhill]

To be honest, when I first heard and thought about harvesting water, it was when the Planet Green channel first started up and I was fascinated by all of the green ways to redo or build a home. That was one of the tips that they gave when they showed people building the harvesting systems and the wind farms on the property.

I do want to say that as soon as I started hearing about it, that it became an issue in both Maryland and Virginia, but things may have changed in the past couple of years.

I'm sorry that I couldn't do any better with the info.

[jasonb]

Rainwater harvesting is excellent addition to house, my parents have it and drink the water too. The system is sealed off so mosquito's do not get to it -  on the inlet to the storage vessel they have included a 5 Gallon plastic drum with just a pipe in and pipe out and this acts as a prefilter. By installing a solar powered pump you can water your whole garden automatically.

Furthermore there is greywater systems whereby you use the water coming from your bathroom and pump this to the garden. Do not use kitchen water (dishwashing liquid the problem).

Currently water is not very expensive, so no ROI - but with a burgeoning population and only 3% off earths water being fresh this will become a problem in the not too distant future. Mad Max immages come to mind where WW3 is about water!

[Sugarhill]

Oooh, I have to question the drinking the water part. What are they doing to filter the water? How are they getting it into the house? I don't know if that effort would be worth the potential risks of doing that. As you said, water isn't that expensive, so why are they choosing to drink harvested rain water versus the tap in their home?