Save your rain for FREE
Sep 23, 2009
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I just found out that Los Angeles has a pilot program giving the homeowners the opportunity to gain free rainwater barrel installation on their properties. Although priority is given to homes in West LA (the Ballona Creek watershed area is where most rain run off ends up in the Pacific Ocean), anyone within the City Limits is eligible for the installation. It's about time: when you think about it, it's absurd to use potable (drinking) water to wash your car or maintain your garden.Yes, LA is a desert. And true, this basin was not the most logical place to house 10 or so million residents. But the annual rain in Los Angeles is higher than what we perceive; plus we get on average about 18 to 20 solid days of rain a year. One one hand, the LA water infrastructure is impressive (more on that later), but unfortunately, no one thought 100 years ago that all that water from the Sierras would be enough to brush our teeth, drink when we're thirsty, wash our cars (and driveways, a pet peeve of mine), and maintain our landscaping.
Using water that would otherwise end up in storm drains is a great first step. Through this program, 600 homeowners will have a 55 gallon drum (made of recycled consumer plastic) installed on their property, hooked up to a system that will salvage that precious rainwater from rain gutters. Should this program succeed, the Bureau of Sanitation will roll this out citywide in 2010. Let's hope this succeeds: we're in our fourth year of drought.
I just filled out an application, part of which you can fill out online, and the rest involves about 2 minutes of paperwork, which you can just fax or scan. More information can be found at larainwaterharvesting.org.
