Rain Barrel Initiative: A Two Year Review

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Rain Barrel Initiative A Two Year Review

• Nine Mile Run Watershed Association
• Summer 2006
• Mark Smith

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Overview

• Objectives Revisited
• Updated Methodology
• Key Findings
• Design Modifications
• Installations
• Program Management
• Business Partnerships
• Lessons Learned

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Objectives Revisited
Initial Goals
Current Status

• Contacted over 150 rain barrel owners

• 1. Contact all rain barrel owners in order to

• Partially Completed

• address problems
• reinforce proper maintenance
• improve NMRWAs image

• Confirmed status of over 200 rain barrels

2. Partially Completed
2. Assess program benefits

• Determine water retention value based on usage
• Determine educational value of barrel ownership

• Water retention estimates established

• Educational value of barrel ownership still
  unclear

3. Generate design suggestions for program future
3. Exceeded Expectations

• Extensive recommendations for rain barrel design
  and programming developed

4
Updated Methodology
Technique
Result

• Survey and letter mailed to all 495 original rain
  barrel owners.

• 84 useful responses
• 48 Unidentifiable responses

• All personal interview subjects contacted via
  phone and e-mail (when possible) with messages
  left when unavailable.

• 24 responses
• 21 interviews

• 9 responses

3. Calls made to 40 unresponsive rain barrel
owners.
3. Changed tactics to canvassing of areas with
high densities of rain barrels. Approximately
160 houses visited.

• 117 responses

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Key Findings Satisfaction
1. Most barrel owners are happy with their
barrels.

• All 21 personal interview subjects would
  recommend the barrel to friends.

• Generally criticism was not aimed at the idea, or
  the program in general, but rather at specific
  failures.

• Common complaints included
• - bad installations
• - quickly clogging filters
• - low water pressure

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Key Findings Maintenance
2. Only a small minority of rain barrel owners
spend time maintaining their barrels or are
willing to take the initiative to modify
inadequate installations.
Frequency of Mesh Sock Cleaning Average 11.5
months Median 6 months

• 1 in 3 personal interview subjects modified the
  original installation in any way.

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Key Findings Usage

• Use of rain barrel varies widely. While some
  users dutifully empty their barrels after every
  storm, others failed to understand the importance
  of emptying or else purposefully hoarded water
  for gardening.

Note Accounting for self-enhancement biases
was beyond the scope of this project, although
these effects should be considered. It is likely
that most owners over-estimated their use of the
barrel.
Estimated Number of Rains Between Full Barrel
Drainage Average 3.75 Median 2.5

• 14 of 21 personal interview subjects have
  overflow directed onto a permeable surface.

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Key Findings Educational Value

• It appears that rain barrel owners have a greater
  understanding of water issues than the average
  Allegheny county resident interviewed in 2004.

However, these results may be largely due to
self-selection biases or self-enhancement biases,
rather than a causal relationship between barrel
ownership and increased understanding of water
related issues.

• All 21 personal interview subjects felt there was
  a relationship between their home and the health
  of Nine Mile Run, compared with 49 of Allegheny
  county residents.

• 10 of 21 personal interview subjects felt they
  had become more interested in water issues since
  owning a rain barrel

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Design Modifications

• Use coarser mesh to reduce maintenance.

• Attach mesh sock more firmly to diverter valve.

3. If costs are not prohibitive, include
multiple sizes and shapes, with a design suitable
for narrow alleys.
4. If costs are not prohibitive, include
multiple colors, such as light brown, dark brown
and grey.
5. Use street elbow in order to reduce stress on
plastic around nozzle.
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Design Modifications
6. Create a nestable design to save on shipping
and storage.

• Increase thickness of plastic throughout barrel.

• Add an additional spin-well on panel adjacent to
  diverter valve for more flexibility during
  installations.

9. Include removable cap with dipstick to allow
owners to check water depth.
10. Include means - such as durable plastic
tubing - of directing water more efficiently into
barrel from downspout.
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Installations

• Install the barrel as we want it to be used,
  because many owners are unlikely to make
  modifications on their own.

2. Identify or design a soaker hose that
functions with low pressure and install this
soaker hose as a policy unless the owner does not
want it.
3. Lean Barrel slightly forward, away from
downspout connection in order to speed drainage
of water into and out of barrel
4. Raise barrel using two concrete pavers and
two cinder blocks in order to increase pressure.
5. Have barrel owners present during
installations to -ensure barrels are installed
in satisfactory location -explain purpose,
usage and maintenance of barrels -improve
quality of installations
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Program Management
Rain Barrel Owner Willingness to Pay Average
53 Median 50
1. Charge nominal fee for barrel (except in
measured sub-watershed where any and all
participation will be needed) in order to -
reduce the number of kind souls that take
barrels without the intention or desire to use
them. - increase membership in
organization - increase the number of barrels
that can be installed per dollar of grant money.

• Reach out to local real estate agents and inform
  them of the program so that rain barrels attached
  to sold houses are not lost.

3. Utilize existing rain barrel owners as block
captains to generate interest in further
installations throughout targeted neighborhoods.
A kind soul barrel
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Business Partnerships Near Term

• Identify a local vendor that does, or is willing
  to, stock replacement valves and mesh socks.

• Identify or design accessories that will enhance
  the effectiveness of the barrel, such as
• -pumps to increase water pressure
• -low flow soaker hoses
• -plastic tubing to direct water from
  downspout into barrel
• -downspout extensions for the overflow.

Possible partner?
3. Identify a local vendor that will stock these
accessories.
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Business Partnerships Long Term
1. Identify a local vendor that will stock a
suitable rain barrel. Use referrals and possible
grant assistance from DOC and DEP as incentives.

• Encourage local vendors to label native plant
  species as such or to have a section for native
  plants similar to the organic food sections that
  many grocery stores have created.

3. Identify a vendor for alternative BMPs such
as cisterns, rain gardens and downspout
extensions.
An environmentalist with all native plantings
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Business Partnerships Recommendations

• As an organization it would be -and in some ways
  already is - a distraction from our core mission
  to handle inquiries or directly sell barrels and
  accessories.
• However, there is clearly a market for these
  items and a need for a local supplier that could
  potentially offer one-stop shopping for
  environmentally friendly landscaping products.
• Therefore, in my opinion, it would makes sense to
  establish an alliance or close relationship with
  a particular vendor or group of vendors.
• This would be preferable to under-serving the
  market for environmental landscaping or
  establishing a retail arm of the watershed
  association which could distract from our core
  mission.

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Lessons Learned

• There are important differences between academic
  and non-academic work that I failed to realize at
  first.
• Setting ambitious goals is helpful to focus work
  when beginning a project, especially when a lack
  of information or experience precludes more
  reasonable goal setting
• Revising ambitious goals when they prove
  unachievable is just as important as creating
  them to begin with.
• People are much more receptive to strangers in
  person than they are over the phone, but people
  are still very wary of strangers.
• Nifty Nabbers are aptly named.

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Thank You For a Fun and Interesting Summer!