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Remember last summer? Surely you remember last summer. Last summer pushed me over the edge. I had been mouthing for months about building rain barrels, had gotten information from the Internet and other sources, had even seen one made. Yet I dithered. Then came last summer. The hell-strip was still hanging in there but close to the house are Texas natives (mostly east Texas plants) that needed more water, and my only water source was the municipal water supply (read dollars). So, taking advantage of the house painting going on at the time, I ripped all the nandina from the west side of the house — and good riddance to them all. This made room for five water barrels.
Tom and I then hied ourselves off to the local feed store and bought four barrels. These are the ugly blue food grade plastic type with a spring-clamped lid. Then it was off to the local home supply forthe hardware. Tom, being the handy-dandy type, had the barrels whipped together in no time. To be sure the barrels were actually going to fit the space we hauled them to the west side of the house and sure enough the four fit very comfortably with room for at least one more. And that is when the trouble began.
Across the street viewing our congratulations was the Code Compliance officer for our neighborhood. She hops from her duly identified municipal vehicle, bears down on us like an avenging angel, and says, “I saw those, and I said to myself those just cannot stand.”
I, perplexed and thinking the awful color offended her, replied, “But we are going to paint them. We don’t intend to leave them this color.” “Oh, no. It’s not the color. You cannot have storage barrels,” the officer replies.
“Not even to catch rain water?” says I.
“What if we put them in the back yard where they cannot be seen from the street,” says hubby.
“No, you cannot have storage barrels anywhere on your property,” came the answer. “Just to be sure, I will check with my supervisor.” After calling him, the answer was still no.
Gut check time. We have spent this money and time to make these barrels and we cannot use them? That is when I decided my best friend was going to be my city councilman, Danny Scarth.
I wrote to him via email explaining the situation and throwing in facts about water usage for horticulture and the amount of water North Central Texas could expect from rains in a good year. Plus I added statistics concerning the amount of water that can be harvested from an average-sized roof from just one- tenth of an inch of rain. And then I told him that some part of Texas is usually in a drought according to the historical record. I was on a roll.
Good ol’ Danny. He replied immediately, saying he thought that City Council had already ad- dressed this issue to allow for collecting rain water. He must also have for- warded my email to others in the downtowngov- ernmental machinery because I also got emails from the head of Code Compliance saying yes, rain barrels are okay, but you have to have screens on the downspouts, you must use opaque barrels (to deter algae growth), and you need a diverter.
A diverter? A diverter, it turns out, is a device that diverts (thus the name) the first flush of water from the roof and then allows the remainder to fill the barrel. This device, according to Dotty Woodson, specialist for water conservation with Texas AgriLIFE, is required for very large roofs of commercial type buildings, not homes (especially one like my 1950s subdivision tiny home).
Apparently, she got Danny’s message too because she got in touch with me wanting to know what the heck was going on. She also informed me that state law allows for the harvesting of water from roofs, and the only require- ment that home owners’ associations can make involves the placement of the barrels. They may say the barrels have to be within a fenced back yard.
I decided I needed to know more. Fort Worth maintains a pretty good Web site in my opinion. I accessed the codes and found that the neighborhood codes say nothing with regard to harvesting rain water. This could explain why my city code compliance officer thought that barrels of any kind were prohibited. So where were the codes on harvesting rain water? Under the plumbing codes, of course. The plumbing codes are extensive and exact, but for our simple little project all that is required is: (1) a screened gutter to catch debris; (2) a lidded barrel; (3) screening on the inlet to the barrel to keep out mosquitoes (and on the overflow spout); and (4) an opaque barrel to deter algae growth
So, we were home free. Had all the required elements. Time to buy the last four barrels, paint them, have the roofing guy install more guttering and downspouts, and install the barrels. Done and done. During the second big rain of spring all barrels were filled, giving us four hundred gallons of water for summer. Five barrels on the west side of the house and three on the east side of the house. Self-satisfied smile.
The take-home lessons here are you know your city codes for rain water harvesting and you know your councilman.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: Dawn Hancock
