Rain Barrel Riverkeeper Partnership

Urban Roots is pleased to be partnering with the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper to offer Rain Barrels for sale. Rain Barrels will be available for purchase directly in the store or by order form.

What is a rain barrel?
A rain barrel is container that collects and stores rain water for future uses, such as watering landscaping, and for decreasing the amount of stormwater runoff that leaves your property. A rain barrel is typically inserted under the downspout from a roof to channel rainwater into the barrel for later use. This is a technology that has been used for thousands of years!

Why do we need rain barrels in the Buffalo Niagara area?

To Conserve Water
By using a rain barrel to capture rainwater, you can store water for later use for outside chores such as washing cars and windows, and watering landscaping. This reduces the demand on our drinking water source and conserves precious fresh water.

To Reduce Pollution
Rain barrels also help address an important water pollution issue caused by overflowing sewers during heavy rain. The City of Buffalo and other surrounding municipalities have underground pipes that carry storm water and sanitary wastewater from the streets and our homes to the wastewater treatment plant. However, when there is too much water in the sewer system during heavy rain events, the sewers are designed to overflow into our streams, creeks, and rivers (and, ultimately, Lake Erie), releasing raw sewage, items flushed down the toilet, pathogens and bacteria, trash and toxic substances, harmful sediment and other pollutants.

This issue is not unique to the City of Buffalo. Approximately 770 cities across the nation have combined sewer overflow issues. Many cities—such as Chicago, Portland, Toronto, and Kansas City—are looking to residents to help reduce the amount of water flowing into the sewer by using rain barrels and rain gardens. Rainwater capture and its slow infiltration into the ground at your house reduce the volume of water into the storm sewers and reduce the sewage overflows. Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER has a goal of installing 1000 rain barrels annually to reduce stormwater overflows in our area.

Help us keep the rain from the drain!
Source: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=5

More facts on Rain Barrels may be downloaded here.