Collecting Rain Water

[fredsheldon]

Doing that is no sweat here but be warned that in some western areas it is flat out illegal to collect rain water. That was a frequent discussion on some of the email list I run. It varies from city to city. Fines can be severe...


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Since it was the local water district that was promoting these barrels I assume that is not an issue here. What is the reason for it not being legal in some areas?

[beeg]

Since it was the local water district that was promoting these barrels I assume that is not an issue here.

MAYBE they are setting ya up so they can collect the fine.

[frank81]

Since it was the local water district that was promoting these barrels I assume that is not an issue here. What is the reason for it not being legal in some areas?

I would guess in more arid areas, storing the little rain they get in an open container leads to significant evaporation that never makes it into the ground and local water table. Pumping from a well would be more efficent.

Where you live is probably wet enough, they just want the huge populations between Dallas and Houston to stop using the resevoirs to water their lawns. Especially since your lakes have been so low the past few years. Yet Texans keep buying freshwater boats....go figure.

[terrydowning]

The problem in LA County is West Nile Virus. I don't now if it's "illegal" or not but standing water sources are not recommended here as they just attract mosquitoes.

[Ed in Tampa]

As I understand it in some arid locations each property owner is allotted a portion of the water, all water be rain water or water from a stream or well.

If you collect water you prevent that water from going into the streams where everyone would be given an allotment of it. Not sure how they proportion the water out but they have a method that works for them.

In Florida we have plenty of water but we have a water district that likes to play God. They are the South West Water Management District or swiftmud for short. Talk about bureaucrats, they made a law that all ran water that falls onto your property must remain on your property unless you are connected to a public storm water collection system.

Many stores and banks are now built over holding tanks that catch the water from the building and parking lot. I have seen places that bought 25 acres of land and had to use better than 16 acres for a retention pond.

Before you build you must have Swiftmuds approval of a master plot plan that shows how you will retain the water.

In my development we have 28 homes each with approx one acre lots. In each case a portion of our property is designated as a retention pond easement. So we have 4 ponds between 1 ½ acres to 3 1/2 acres in size .
My property ends up being ¾ acre useable land.

Works for me I have a really nice pond and not so much lawn to mow. But some didn’t take care of their ponds and they are a mess, yeech!:eek:

Since they are easements the county works on them last.

If I wanted I could pump from the pond to water but since I'm on a well I just water. However Swiftmud says I can only do it legally once a week. Go figure my land, my well and my retention pond and I have to follow their guide lines.

[BuckeyeDennis]

As I understand it in some arid locations each property owner is allotted a portion of the water, all water be rain water or water from a stream or well.

If you collect water you prevent that water from going into the streams where everyone would be given an allotment of it. Not sure how they proportion the water out but they have a method that works for them.

In Florida we have plenty of water but we have a water district that likes to play God. They are the South West Water Management District or swiftmud for short. Talk about bureaucrats, they made a law that all ran water that falls onto your property must remain on your property unless you are connected to a public storm water collection system.

Many stores and banks are now built over holding tanks that catch the water from the building and parking lot. I have seen places that bought 25 acres of land and had to use better than 16 acres for a retention pond.

Before you build you must have Swiftmuds approval of a master plot plan that shows how you will retain the water.

In my development we have 28 homes each with approx one acre lots. In each case a portion of our property is designated as a retention pond easement. So we have 4 ponds between 1 ½ acres to 3 1/2 acres in size .
My property ends up being ¾ acre useable land.

Works for me I have a really nice pond and not so much lawn to mow. But some didn’t take care of their ponds and they are a mess, yeech!:eek:

Since they are easements the county works on them last.

If I wanted I could pump from the pond to water but since I'm on a well I just water. However Swiftmud says I can only do it legally once a week. Go figure my land, my well and my retention pond and I have to follow their guide lines.

Fascinating. Does Swiftmud have a actual rationale for this rule? Complying can't be cheap.

When my neighborhood was developed, the only runoff rule I can recall was that you couldn't divert runoff in a different direction. So your downspouts needed to discharge the water into more-or-less the same area of the watershed that it would have gone to anyway. No biggy -- it tended to happen that way regardless, and it was probably a good idea for maintaining the woodlands. Different trees thrive in different soil conditions.

[fredsheldon]

The problem in LA County is West Nile Virus. I don't now if it's "illegal" or not but standing water sources are not recommended here as they just attract mosquitoes.

Which is why these barrels are mosquitoeproof. They have a special filter in the lid to keep critters and kids out.

[Ed in Tampa]

Fascinating. Does Swiftmud have a actual rationale for this rule? Complying can't be cheap.

When my neighborhood was developed, the only runoff rule I can recall was that you couldn't divert runoff in a different direction. So your downspouts needed to discharge the water into more-or-less the same area of the watershed that it would have gone to anyway. No biggy -- it tended to happen that way regardless, and it was probably a good idea for maintaining the woodlands. Different trees thrive in different soil conditions.

I think the rational for this rule is at times we get 5-10 inches of rain in a few hours time. If everyone sloped their yards to runoff some poor slob somewhere is going to be under water. If all the water is retained and some runs off does occur it usually isn't as big as flood.

You are right compliance isn't cheap and can be very frustrating. I was an Administrative assistant at a church and had to deal with Swiftmud. We had a retention pond with a weir (small spill way). We buit it to spec from Stainless steel (required). About a year later Swiftmud said the Weir was too low and we had to raise it 6 inches.

We asked if we raise it six incher would they give us something that said we didn't have to do it again? They refused.

We had to get the manufacture to come out and raise the weir 6 inches. It was about 20 ft wide and all stainless. The kicker is we could not raise it higher. It had to be the exact height Swiftmud said, no higher no lower.

Get this the retention pond and weir had to be constructed so that water would only flow over the weir once in a 50 or 100 years. So we had to have a magnificant stainless steel weir built to Swiftmud's exact demands and water was expected to only flow over in once in 50 or 100 years. That was call a 50 or 100 year flood plan.

Big money!

[fredsheldon]

I finally got around to installing a manifold system to connect all 6 rain barrels. I wasn't sure there would be enough water pressure to use the soaker hose but as it turns out it works great. It just takes all night to empty one 60 gallon barrel. I installed a two way diverter valve and run one hose to the back garden and another to the side garden. I only empty one barrel at a time. I had drained 3 barrels up until this last weekend. We got a half inch of rain which recharged two of the barrels.

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Splitter valve.

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Soaker hose in the back garden.

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Three of the six barrels connected to a common manifold. Each barrel has a ball valve to allow for the draining of one barrel at a time.

[ryanbp01]

To those of you who get the Woodcraft flyer, have you seen the rains barrels for sale? I like the idea of a planter on top.
BPR