Drought Strickens: Water Shortages, Rain Barrels and Cattle Deaths in Texas (EcoLocalizer)

Jan.19, 2009 in Drought, Public Works, Water Conservation, Water Crisis, Water Technology

(Jan. 19, 2009, EcoLocalizer)

It feels like you can’t check the news lately without hearing about another area coping with severe drought. Here in Atlanta, we’ve been dealing with a water shortage for years, as have folks in California.

Texas is in a worsening drought situation, too, which is leading to cattle deaths. There’s no grass for the poor cows to graze on because there has been so little rain. The lack of food means they’re too weak to survive the cold January temperatures. It’s hard to grow anything when there are such long periods in between rainstorms.

So how can those of us in these drought-stricken areas save the precious little water we get when it does rain? How about installing a rain barrel or two!

I have to admit here that I’m not the most handy person. My husband, Dave, and his dad, Denis, did most of the installing, while I provided moral support (aka: snacks and beer). The project can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. Here are some tips straight from Dave and Denis on getting started!

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Mosquito Control – Many rain barrels come with a lid that lets water in but keeps pests like mosquitoes from turning the barrel into a breeding ground. Ours didn’t come with that, so they used a big piece of screen that was held on by the biggest rubber band I’ve ever seen. The rubber bands kept breaking, so Dave finally replaced it with the bungee cord in the picture above.

Water Pressure – Whether you’re planning to fill buckets and watering cans or use the barrel to irrigate your garden like we do, you’ll need decent water pressure. This is pretty simple to achieve! Just put the rain barrel on a stack of concrete blocks, and gravity will do all the work for you!

Collecting Water Efficiently – If you have gutters on your house, you can modify the downspouts to funnel the water runoff from your roof right into your rain barrel. They used a saw to shorten the downspout, then attached an elbow to direct the water into the rain barrel.

Irrigation – If you prefer to water your garden yourself, you can just attach a hose to the rain barrel’s spigot and go to town. Dave got a little fancy and set us up with a drip irrigation system! He buried soaker hoses where he wants the water to feed our plants, then attached that to the barrel using a regular hose. When the garden is looking thirsty, he just turns the spigot on, and water feeds into all of the beds!

The barrels are pretty low maintenance. You want to make sure not to keep the water in there for over a week or it starts to smell a little funky, and bacteria can start to grow in there. If you’re in a place that has freezing temperatures during the winter, you’ll want to drain it in the colder months to prevent ice damage to your system. We’ve had the barrels for about a year now, and they’re great at helping the garden through the times between rainstorms.