Folly Green Team offering rain barrels on the cheap

Special to The Current

The Folly Green Team is having a busy month! They’re in the process of establishing a Community Garden on Michigan Avenue in September (see the article on page 1), and they’re facilitating the sale of rain collection barrels for Folly residents’ home use.

Rainwater harvesting is simply catching the rain falling on your roof via gutters and downspouts and re-routing the water to a rain barrel or cistern for later use. No gutters? No problem. You can still collect rainwater by placing a rain barrel under your eaves, or by installing a simple diverter on your roof and direct the water into a rain barrel on the ground.

According to Green Team member and rain barrel czar Marty Morganello, the team is offering Folly residents a $129 rain barrel for only $69 in an effort to help people conserve water, use non-potable water for non-potable purposes and to help control stormwater runoff. The barrels are made in the USA out of 100 percent recycled plastic.

Morganello, owner of Lowcountry Rain Harvesting based on Oak Island, offers a wide range of benefits for using rain barrels. By collecting rain, the fresh water supply is conserved. Rainwater can be used for washing pets, watering plants and any other outdoor non-potable use. Rain barrels also help control storm water by capturing it as opposed to letting it run off property, into a ditch and subsequently into the Folly River. These barrels are also a great tool for children to learn about conservation.

Morganello goes much deeper into the benefits of rainwater harvesting on his website, lowcountryrainharvesting.com. “Plants love rainwater,” he writes, “rainwater is nearly Ph neutral, which is what plants thrive in. Why use municipal water with fluoride and chlorine when you can use all natural harvested rainwater in your garden? You can use it to wash your car, your pets, and to do your laundry. You can use it to flush your toilets. It’s also great as a supply of water after storms.”

The average rainfall in Charleston is 50 inches. One square foot of roof surface will capture 6/10ths of a gallon for every inch of rain. If you have a 1,000-square-foot roof, you could capture over 30,000 gallons a year. An empty rain barrel will fill up in a matter of minutes during a summer afternoon storm.

To take advantage of the Folly Green Team’s rain barrel offer, contact Marty Morganello at mmorganello@gmail.com.

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