The Rain Catchers is a group of Auburn-area folks committed to community water conservation and environmental education. The group was organized this past fall by Tia Gonzales, an Alabama Cooperative Extension employee working with Eve Brantley at Auburn University. Eve and Tia submitted a proposal to SWaMP for the promotion of rain barrels in the Saugahatchee Watershed through the development of a rain barrel how-to manual and a series of workshops to train area residents how to construct and operate their own rain barrels. Workshops would also include discussion of the benefits of increasing onsite retention and infiltration of rainfall and reducing nonpoint source pollution, versus allowing rainfall to flow offsite as stormwater runoff into storm drains and local streams.

SWaMP approved the proposal for funding and anticipates dual benefits of potable water conservation (residents that use water from rain barrels on their yards and gardens will use less water from their faucets) and reduced stormwater runoff and associated pollutants (lawn fertilizers, pet waste) flushing into Saugahatchee Creek. 

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About 30 Rain Catchers attended a rain barrel construction workshop organized by Tia at the AU School of Forestry on November 21st. Wendy Smith from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) started the workshop with an overview of the WWF South Eastern Rivers and Streams Program, which has actively supported conservation/preservation efforts in the Tallapoosa Basin (including watershed-level bacteria ‘blitz’ sampling by citizen volunteer monitoring groups SOS and CHEWUP, and support of Alabama Water Watch statewide volunteer monitoring efforts). Wendy stated that the goal of WWF is to conserve 19 of the world’s most diverse places, one of which is the aquatic ecosystem of the south eastern rivers and streams (which has the third-highest aquatic biodiversity on the planet, surpassed only by the Amazon and the Mekong basins). She added that WWF is partnering with Coke on water conservation, reuse and efficiency, and innovative stormwater practices including promotion of rain barrels. She introduced Jeff Herndon, Coke representative from Montgomery, who has agreed to supply the Rain Catchers with plastic 55-gallon barrels from Coke – thank you Coke! Wendy concluded by suggesting that we all start thinking of stormwater as a resource, available for harvest and use, instead of as a problem.

Ashley Henderson followed Wendy with a discussion of her efforts in reducing nonpoint source pollution working as Basin Facilitator with the Alabama-Tombigbee Clean Water Partnership. She said that she plans to take lessons learned in Auburn and promote a community rain barrel project in the Montgomery area. Eric Reutebuch followed Ashley with a brief overview of the Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan, SWaMP, indicating that installation of infiltration-promoting BMPs such as rain barrels and rain gardens reduce nonpoint source pollution loading into streams, which is SWaMP’s primary goal.

Then it was time to get to work – Tia and Eve directed the group to their barrels, and all began construction of a rain barrel. Steps included drilling two holes in the plastic barrels – one at the bottom for installation of a spigot, and one near the top for an overflow hose fitting. The final step involved cutting a hole in the top of the barrel and covering it with window screen to allow rooftop rainfall into the barrel from a downspout, and to keep mosquitoes out. Construction methods and materials will be refined for compilation of a rain barrel how-to manual, and for community rain barrel workshops to be conducted in early 2009. Stay tuned, and we hope to see you this coming spring at a Rain Catcher workshop!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 am and is filed under Watershed Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.