I have question regarding all of this. Today, my father and I cleaned 20 years worth of built-up sediment runoff from my house gutters. The roof is asphalt shingle, from 1996 and I don't believe the gutters have ever been cleaned until today. We had buckets of tarry black sludge, water and rocks that had unlodged from the shingles. When I wasn't looking, my dad decided to empty a few buckets worth of the liquid portion to reduce the weight. He didn't strain the liquid, he just poured off the top, so it was black nasty tar-water. And guess where he dumped it? In his septuagenarian wisdom he dumped that black water into my veggie garden because it wouldn't be as visible, since the soil was also dark. I am pretty upset about it and felt he basically turned the center of my garden into a contaminated brownfield site. I stopped him from pouring the final bucket in there once I noticed what he was doing, but already several had gone in. I appreciate that he wants to help out, but I never wanted him here to do this job; he imposed on me, sort of telling me it needed to be done. Now I'm thinking about dismantling the garden, raking it out and seeding with grass and giving up entirely on the idea. I don't want to eat from it anymore. I'm also upset that I had just planted some things in there not too long ago. The smell was foul from the sludge and I had to wash my hands 5 times with various soaps and pummus to get the odour out. Surely the tar-sediment which built up from sitting for 20 years in gutters is carcinogenic and awful for anyone to ingest. Are my fears reasonable? Will that stuff wash away by summer, or will it be absorbed by the plants and maybe give me a tumour some 15 years down the road? I'll always look back to this episode if that does happen and I kept eating from that garden...

TML, 1. Chlorine from water is not a problem. CL2 dissipates from tap water within a day and not harmful in the concentration in drinking water to plants. SWCs would be even less so. 2. Every foot of vertical height of water equals roughly 0.5 psi. So to push water 12 feet, you need 6 psi + 20%. Have the barrels raised on the 1st floor somehow. Otherwise a pump that produces 25 psi and what ever flow rate you need. Even rig up the pump to come on when the water level in the SWC gets to a certain level. JMHO Aloha

Hi y'all. Hubby and I have made 5 rain barrels. Ours are soda syrup barrels. We used the bung to attach the spigot. In the center of the the bung we found ours had 3/4" threads. Although it was sealed over, we were able to drill out the seal without damaging the threads. We then attached a 3/4" threaded 2" nipple, a threaded elbow, another nipple and then a pvc 1/4 turn ball valve, and another 3/4" threaded nipple to attach a hose to. Everything was wrapped with teflon tape and silcone caulk was used on the bung and the overflow hose then we turned it upside down and cut a hole for the downspout. About 2 or 3" from the top we drilled a hole just big enough for another 3/4" threaded nipple. This was used for a overflow hose. It also could be used to add another barrel. another option we are considering is stacking the barrels. Using the bung hole we would put a pvc pipe from the top barrel to the the bottom barrel, thus using only one spigot and giving more pressure. I use the rain water quite frequently to water my many flower beds. I attach another hose to the spigot and run it to where I need it. A full barrel will put out a 4' spray from a sprinkler until about the barrel is half full. Like I said earlier the threads on the bung are 3/4" you could attach a garden hose and a shutoff valve on the end of the hose.

Well, probably not actually bio unfriendly. After all, its the same water you take a shower or bath in (and cook with too). But the rusty crud does probably settle out and its a good idea to attempt to clear that stuff out every once in a while. Guess I will have to go out and do it Right Now. Oops. More info. I guess I forgot how my newer heater valve worked. It is opened with a screw driver. The nut shape is not a handle but the faucet cap, just like on an old sink faucet. If you took a wrench and opened that with water pressure on, you would create one of those destroy your house, epic flood, movies. And, its been so long, I had forgotten that people suggest draining the tank by truly draining it rather than just flushing stuff thru it. You are supposed to close off the water inlet above the tank AND turn off the heater so you don't burn up an empty tank; and THEN open the drain. Well, actually after also opening one or all hot water faucets so air can replace the draining water in the tank just like I suggested for emergency water. And, I guess I had some goop or a clog of some thing that clogged up the drain after a minute. I had an air compressor that I blasted into the drain hose. That temporarily pushed the clog away and water gushed out for a couple minutes until it clogged up again; presumably with the same junk. I did the air blast again and got a long running flow until empty. Obviously most people don't have an air compressor and air hose. Blasting (or gentle) water from another outside garden hose would also work, but you are then putting two same garden hoses together and the metal to metal won't seal well. I actually used an odd rubber washer to act as a gasket between my metal pieces. You could do the same with some rubber item (or scrap leather/vinyl from old purse etc.) with a hole in the middle. Guess its a good thing I did it now. Hope the wife doesn't want to take a shower for a few hours.