Should We Collect Rain Water?

Below is an article that addresses the legality of collecting rainwater in Florida. Apparently, the collection of water run-off from your rooftop is illegal in some states. However, it seems to be legal in Florida. Rainwater collection barrels can be easily obtained.  Should we collect rainwater?

Update August 26; regarding Florida: back to top There have been a number of searches accessing this blog regarding rain water harvesting legality in the state of Florida. After several hours of searching at the Florida state government’s site, I found nothing specifically prohibiting rain barrels, or rain water harvesting by individuals at the state level. I found that, in the Florida keys, rain water harvesting is the main source for all the water. Whether or not a person can “legally” set up rain barrels in this state will likely be determined mainly at the local level as of right now.  This situation is likely to change. Again, the regulations regarding water use are extremely complex and there are hundreds of documents. Here are some of the main links I found: Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes :->2010->Chapter 373->Part IV : Online Sunshinewww.dep.state.fl.us/water/waterpolicy/docs/2012_annual_rwsp.pdf Office of Water Policy – FDEPFrom these above links you will find the information used in this post, and interpretation.  Also here is another link to a list of Florida building and plumbing codes: E-Codes From the above links, it can be shown that there are major water issues in Florida, including a long running dispute with the state of Georgia. Look for rainwater harvesting to become very important in this area of the country very soon. If you have arrived here searching for laws regarding rainwater harvesting, check first with your homeowner’s association, county, or city officials. Next check your state Department of Natural Resources. Update July 18, 2014 regarding Florida: I have searched through the Florida government website at the above links. I  searched on rain water, roof water, rain barrels, surface water, runoff, rain water harvesting and found, after an hour of searching, nothing specifically prohibiting rain water harvesting by individuals. I did find over 100 links in Google results similar the the following links which show numerous state, and local municipalities encouraging rain barrel use :http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/rainbarrel/ http://fyn.ifas.ufl.edu/barrels.htmhttp://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/natural_resources.shtmlhttp://hillsborough.ifas.ufl.edu/fyn/rain_barrels.shtml Florida department of environmental protection http://www.protectingourwater.org/watersheds/get_wet/protectwater/rainbarrels/http://www.fkaa.com/buildingrainbarrel.pdf http://www.miamidade.gov/waterconservation/rain-barrels.asp http://www.dunedingov.com/index.aspx?page=625http://www.brevardcounty.us/NaturalResources/Watershed/RainBarrelWorkshopshttps://www.palmcoastgov.com/green/rain-barrels http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/index.aspx?NID=821 http://www.mymanatee.org/home/government/departments/utilities/potable-water-system/water-conservation/programs/rainbarrels.html In my humble opinion, it is highly unlikely that it is against state law in Florida to harvest rain water from your roof. If anyone reading this has proof otherwise, please leave a comment with a link to your source, and I will change this post accordingly . No link, no change.

http://www.enlight-inc.com/blog/?p=1036#floridas

Rain Gutter Problems for Building 33

Rain gutters have been added to some buildings as a really good measure to help prevent water intrusion damage.  However, the rain gutters themselves do require some maintenance.  In the case of building 33, pictured below, it is clear that the gutter is so full of leaves and or debris (in spite of leaf guards having been installed) that the water is running over the top of the gutter and down the side rather than down the spout (06 August 2011 rainstorm).  That particular downspout also has problems, in that the away-tube portion has never been installed and a rather large hole has grown, from rain-water erosion, at the back corner of that building's foundation.  There are some simple solutions that can be applied.  But there are multiple such problems around the property that have existed for several years and have not been addressed.  Previous posts on this subject can be found by clicking this link: (Other rain gutter posts: rain gutters)

                

It is too bad that the tree trimmers didn't clean out the gutters while they were right there (on 04 August 2011) with the lift equipment that would make it an easy and fast task to accomplish.

Let It Rain

Not everybody is sad when it rains. Some actually like the rain because it gives them an opportunity to get their feet wet and to have a drink of fresh water (these ducks enjoyed the puddle in the middle of the road in front of building 02).

"Hey, watch out, here comes a car!"

Others like the rain because it gives them their very first experience of wearing a really cool poncho!

Planter-boxes: Good and Bad

BAD: Where gutters have been installed and the downspouts drain into the planter-boxes, a deficient situation has resulted. You can see in the picture above that there is a small trench in the dirt inside the planter as a result of the rain-water run-off. What you cannot see in this picture is that much of the soil that was previously in the planter has been washed out through the bricks. It seems that an additional length of downspout pipe to run the water out past the bricks, or a black plastic tube to run the water below the surface of the planter-box dirt would be of great benefit.

GOOD: The ten planter-boxes that surround our five entrances are looking very nice, lately. To the powers that be -- thanks for making our property look well-cared-for and pretty.

Construction Committee: Gutters need leaf guards

The heavy rains that have been happening lately have provided an opportunity to evaluate the performance of our gutters. It is apparent that the gutters under trees need leaf guards, even those gutters just recently installed. Pictured are the rain-gutters over-flowing and sending water down the back walls of buildings 33 and 35. Building 40 has the same issues, with leaves and twigs blocking the downspout of the gutters. There are probably other buildings having this same system malfunction, but these are the ones that I can see easily from my window when it is raining outside.