LA residents testing new water conservation program
Molly Peterson/KPCC
Mar Vista resident Jeanne Kuntz enthusiastically sells her neighbors on the idea of saving water (and money) in a free barrel.
Los Angeles residents are harvesting rainwater from their home rooftops as Southern California reels from a fourth year of drought. It's part of a new effort by the city of Los Angeles. KPCC's Molly Peterson looks at how some Angelenos are making it work.
Mar Vista homeowner Jeanne Kuntz fairly bounces around her yard.
Molly Peterson/KPCC
Jeanne Kuntz says she'll use captured rainwater from her new rain barrel to water her already efficient vegetable garden.
Web Resources
- LA's rainwater harvesting program
- Mar Vista Community Council
- 11th District councilman Bill Rosendahl on Rain Harvesting
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Her enthusiasm is contagious: she could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves. Her passion today is saving water, starting at home, in a new rain barrel.
"It just captured my imagination for a variety of reasons," she says, her hands looping through the air. "The beauty of this is, it's multipurpose: it's not just preventing the water from going into the street and then pulling all that polluted runoff into the ocean, it's also got the water for your plants right there."
Kuntz presses ripe, home-grown melon into the hands of the contractor the city of LA is paying to install rain barrels.
Two guys are Kuntz's downspout and re-route it; periodically, a clank of spout pipe comes from around the corner, and a phrase in Spanish. When the next rains fall, greywater - captured water that's not drinkable, but still usable - will accumulate in a brown 55-gallon barrel.
Kuntz is one of hundreds of homeowners testing barrels for the city of Los Angeles.
Catherine Tyrell is a consultant with the firm Malcolm Pirnie, working with the city. Tyrell says LA's plan differs from others she's seen that focus on new buildings. "It's about making changes in our existing homes. And that's really critical in a city like Los Angeles, so much is already built."
Jeanne Kuntz's new barrel sits on a cinder block. It's actually not new, but repurposed: made of food grade plastic, it once held gallons of pickles.
Others on LA's west side have old syrup barrels. Consultant Tyrell says the city's also considering barrels made from scratch that users can recycle later.
There’s another reason she says the low-tech program represents the cutting edge of conservation: LA's one dry region. Catching every drop - even the flow from gutters -matters a lot.
"What's unique here is taking it to an area that doesn't think it gets enough rain," Tyrell says. "But it's precious here in Southern California."
People could save plenty more of that precious wet stuff, says the Bureau of Sanitation's Wing Tam.
He estimates that a house with a 1,000-square-foot roof could catch thousands of gallons in a normal year of rainfall. Building codes in L.A. sometimes put greywater collection in a grey area; at the very least, city rules complicate matters.
Tam says his department aims to figure out how to streamline such projects in the future.
"We are working very closely with building and safety, we want to go citywide on this, to either change the code or modify a code so that it does not become an issue," Tam says.
The last hole holding the down spout is drilled into Koonz's house.
The last fastener bangs into place. The city of LA will evaluate how well rain barrels work, and what it must do to encourage their use. Tam hopes to roll out barrels citywide next year.
Right now Kuntz is just trying to sell her Mar Vista neighbors on the urgency of this project.
"The way I've put it to people is we're trying to get them all installed before the rainy season starts. And it gives people this idea there's a deadline," Kuntz says.
Kuntz says saving rain in a 55-gallon barrel is the same as saving money. She wants everyone to share the wealth.
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Day In A Page Radio/Story Archive
1 month, 1 week ago
Although 55 Gallon are only a literal drop in the bucket, it is a start. In Europe, where rainfall is much more abundant, rainwater cisterns are much more common than here in our drought stricken area. It's time to catch up.
One little remark- Rainwater is not greywater! Greywater is water from tubs, showers, sinks & laundry.
1 month, 1 week ago
Thanks, Frank! Chicago and some northeast cities were among the examples the Malcolm Pirnie folks cited.
About greywater: you raise an interesting point. I always understand greywater by what it is not: blackwater has sewage or bacterial contaminants in it. Potable water is drinkable. In between, it's grey. I simply wasn't thinking about rainwater as potable. You're right that I didn't specify in the story, and that greywater is often understood as being from domestic processes. But my reference to it as grey had to do with its drinkability. Certainly the city of LA isn't treating this water as drinkable, nor are these residents.
But folks in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine did ( http://tinyurl.com/yz32uc6 ), as John Rabe and I discussed ( http://tinyurl.com/yz4fgsm ) earlier this year.
I grew up in an era when Kimberly's hair turned green after she washed it in a copper bowl ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSkg1Mmo7Y ) on Diff'rent Strokes, so I don't think of rainwater as potable. But more precise would have been just to say rainwater over and over.
Thanks for your comments!
1 month, 1 week ago
The State of California recently revised its plumbing code to allow simple graywater systems to be installed without a permit (this is bathtub/shower/sink/laundry water) for use in landscape irrigation. California Graywater Corps can do these residential installations and save tens of thousands of gallons per year. http://graywatercorps.com
1 month, 1 week ago
Yes, it is about time for LA and other drought-stricken Californian locales to adopt this low-tech solution. 55 gallons are almost laughable, but every drop counts! I traveled to Brisbane in March and wrote about their water woes on my blog. Different climates in more ways than one, but rainwater harvesting adoption has skyrocketed there since Queensland's major drought with combined dam levels dipping to below 20%. Looking forward to your comments there.
1 month, 1 week ago
Here is the link to Waterfront Lines
http://jane-in-orbit.blogspot.com/2009/04/come-on-californians-we-can-do-it-too.html
1 month, 1 week ago
Wow, glad California has a rain barrel program. We got our barrels from a rain barrel program too and the parts were supplied by http://www.aquabarrel.com/product_rain_barrel_parts_kits.php.
We reduced our water bill by installing a dual flush toilet kit that we got from this site http://www.aquabarrel.com/product_one2flush.php.
1 month, 1 week ago
What is being done about mosquitoes breeding in the rain barrels?
I know this has been addressed before, such as floating lids, but I don't know any details.
A commentary from Vector Control (mosquito control) may be useful.
1 month ago
We live in Florida and it rains a lot. We conserve all that rainwater by channeling it from our homes rain gutters into our many rain barrels. We conserve hundreds of gallons of rainwater each summer to meet the needs of all our exotic flowers, plants, victory garden, car washing, window cleaning, deck cleaning and cleaning garden pots, etc. You can even flush your toilet with it to conserve on potable water. We keep our rain gutters super clean so the water going into our rain barrels is cleaner as well.
We have to clean gutters about every 4 weeks due to huge oak trees hanging over our home. Its easy to do know that we have the new gutter cleaning tool, the Gutter Clutter Buster, that attaches to our 2-1/2" shop vac hose. It literally vacuums out all debris, wet or dry, while I stay on the ground. No ladders, buckets, gloves, scoops need for this job anymore. I clean my gutters in half the time as usual and my rainwater stays really clean all year long. So, I wish you all Happy Rainwater Harvesting and continue to "Save Our Water."
1 month ago
We live in Florida and it rains a lot. We conserve all that rainwater by channeling it from our homes rain gutters into our many rain barrels. We conserve hundreds of gallons of rainwater each summer to meet the needs of all our exotic flowers, plants, victory garden, car washing, window cleaning, deck cleaning and cleaning garden pots, etc. You can even flush your toilet with it to conserve on potable water. We keep our rain gutters super clean so the water going into our rain barrels is cleaner as well.
We have to clean gutters about every 4 weeks due to huge oak trees hanging over our home. Its easy to do know that we have the new gutter cleaning tool, the Gutter Clutter Buster, that attaches to our 2-1/2" shop vac hose. It literally vacuums out all debris, wet or dry, while I stay on the ground. No ladders, buckets, gloves, scoops need for this job anymore. I clean my gutters in half the time as usual and my rainwater stays really clean all year long. So, I wish you all Happy Rainwater Harvesting and continue to "Save Our Water." You will also keep the mosquitoes out of your rain barrel by putting porch/window screening over all holes in the barrels. Good Luck!
3 weeks, 5 days ago
Why aren't other cities around southern California also making the rain barrels available? Why aren't all cities--particularly the wealthy coastal cities where runoff is a major issue--providing discounted landscape conversion programs so we can all be encouraged to rip out our grass and go low-water and native in our gardens? I want to do all of these things, but am not sure where or how to start! Community support would go a long way toward helping millions of people convert to water conservation in yards.