Rain barrels are a fantastic aid for water conservation and stormwater management. By storing run off rain water from your downspouts, not only are you able to prevent the run off from ending up in your city’s storm drains, but you’re also able to harvest rainwater for all your garden watering needs, reducing your water bill and demand.

Stormwater run off that goes straight to the city contains a great deal of contaminants, such as nasty chems from roof shingles. This water usually heads straight into local waterways untreated. By using this water in the garden instead, your plants do all the necessary filtering, and spare local waterways the direct influx of pollution every time it rains.

For the DIY lovers, here’s a complete set of instructions on how to make your own rain barrel. You can convert old wine barrels, or plastic food grade barrels (often used to import foods like olives), or you can purchase a pre-made rain barrel online, at some local gardening and hardware stores, and even from some local non-profits concerned with water conservation and stormwater run off pollution.

Check with your local city too- they may offer rain barrels at a discounted rate, and may even have downspout disconnect programs where they offer to reroute your downspouts to feed into a free rain barrel. This saves the city big bucks since there’s a lot less stress on the stormwater system, plus it’s a huge environmental bonus to the city since your plants end up filtering the pollution of the run off water.

Here are a few links to city rain barrel programs:
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
Toronto, ON
Vancouver, BC
Washington DC

Rain Barrel Resources:
Rain Barrel Guide - useful tips on rain barrel installation
Clean Air Gardening Supply - online retailer of rain barrels
Riversides - Toronto area non-profit selling rain barrels
Disconnect your own downspout instructions
Build your own rain barrel instructions