That time I realized my rain barrel was actually making things worse

I set up a rain barrel 3 years ago to save water for my garden. Felt pretty good about myself... until last week when my neighbor who works for the county extension office pointed out I wasn't cleaning it properly. Turns out stagnant water in a barrel that sits in the sun becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and algae. I had been watering my tomatoes with basically swamp water for months. She showed me how the debris from my roof was also clogging the screen and sending sediment straight into my plants. Now I'm looking at a proper first-flush diverter and some mosquito dunks... anyone else mess up their first rainwater setup?

3 comments

3 Comments

susansingh5d ago

Your mileage may vary on this, but the roof runoff thing is actually trickier than most people realize. In my experience, even with a first-flush diverter, you still need to think about what kind of shingles you have. Some older asphalt shingles can leach chemicals into the water, especially when it gets hot. And if you have any bird droppings or tree debris up there, that all just washes straight in. I ended up switching to a covered barrel with a dark color to block sunlight and keep algae from growing. The mosquito dunks help a lot but you have to replace them every month, I just write a date on the barrel with a sharpie to remember.

logan5255d ago

Nah, I gotta push back on this a bit! I've been collecting rainwater off my asphalt shingle roof for like 6 years now and haven't had any issues with chemicals or water quality, even tested it once at a friend's lab and it came back clean. Plus, if you're that worried about it, you're probably not drinking the stuff anyway, it's for plants and washing stuff so a little trace of whatever isn't gonna kill your tomatoes.

anna4915d ago

Did you test it for heavy metals specifically or just the basic stuff? I've heard some of those older shingles can leach lead or zinc over time and that's not something a typical water test would catch.