Of the many uses our ancestors have had for rain collection barrels in the past, Man has created a situation that requires a completely new purpose for a rain barrel. The natural pattern of the water cycle is taught in most schools and it has been going round and round for hundreds and hundreds of years. The water evaporates from the ooceans and lakes, Clouds form,they under go various changes in temprature and pressure which cause rain to fall to the earth where it absorbed by the ground where it is purified as it seeps to the water table. It wends its way to the streams and rivers and eventually back to the starting point. I’m leaving out all the technical data because the point I’m trying to make is that man is causing a step to be skipped in this cycle, and this missing step increased pollution and is partially responsible for Southern California’s water shortage.
By using a rain water barrel, we can greatly reduce the amount of pollution caused by storm runoff. You see things like roof tops roads and parking lots keep the water from being absorbed by the earth and being purified and raising our water table. Instead of being purified the water runs along the surface picking up polutants which it caries into the storm drains and in the case of Southern California back out to the Pacific Ocean. As a result the Beaches often have polution warnings. Now this whole cycle could have been improved if Southern Californians used rain collection barrels and kept the water out of the streets and storm drains then when they watered their lawn the water would be absorbed by the earth and purified as is the natural cycle.
Any one who believes that it never rains in Southern California never had to wade through a 6 inches of rushing water at the streets edge to get to their car on one of those not so sunny California days. While it is true that it seldom rains in Southern California, during the rainy season it often pours. many feel it doesn’t rain enough in Southern California to warrant the use of a rain collection barrel. In a place like California, you need more than one water barrel, because 5,000 to 30,000 gallons of rainfall can be collected from 1000 sq ft of roof each year and 90% of it during a three-month period and you’d be trying to make it through the other nine months on the 50 gallons from your one rain collection barrel. However there are rain water collection systems consisting of a series of “barrels” that hold far more than a 50 or 60 Gallon water barrel. Being round the rainwater barrel has a disadvantage because there is a lot of wasted space in a string of water barrels connected in a series. This gives square units such as the Rainwater hog a distinct advantage that they can be connected in series in a more compact fashion. You can calculate the amount of water that runs off your roof by the following formila .623 x your roofs sq ft x the inches of rain per year. So if your roof was 1000 sq ft and you lived in LA which gets between 10 and 30 inches per year. You could expect between 6230 gallons to 18,690 gallons to be running off your roof each year. Now you probably won’t find a rain water barrel that big unless you collect it in your swimming pool but I think that the argument that it doesn’t rain enough in California is a flimsey argument you just have to get Texas sized rain barrels.