By Rebekah Eastep, Senior Environmental Education Planner
An easy, affordable way to put nature’s watery bounty to work is by installing a rain barrel on your property. This home improvement will collect and store rainwater for outdoor watering needs—reducing water costs and stormwater runoff at the same time.
When attached to a downspout, rain barrels prevent rainwater from entering the storm drain, storing it for later use on lawns, gardens, and plants. This alone makes rain barrels a valuable use of ‘free water.’ But by averting runoff from the yard, a rain barrel helps to keep pollution, soil erosion and flooding at bay, too.
Rainwater flows along rooftops, driveways, and sidewalks, picking up dirt, trash, motor oil, fertilizers, pet waste and other pollutants. The debris washes into the storm drain system, then out to local creeks, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay.
You can find ready-to-install rain barrels in local hardware, home and garden and do-it-yourself stores across Hampton Roads. Or, for less than $100, you can make one by installing a hose bib to a heavy-duty trash can using a drill, screws, and nylon screening. Follow the askHRgreen.org rain barrel tutorial posted here!
Another option is to snag a spot in one of the popular askHRgreen.org rain barrel workshops, held later this month and in June throughout the region. Attendees pay $25 for a rain barrel they assemble during the workshop and then install at home. These low-cost workshops are made possible by grants from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and the sale of Virginia Chesapeake Bay license plates.