CHARLESTON, W.Va.–Dozens of citizens gathered at the state DEP headquarters in Kanawha City Wednesday night to celebrate Earth Day by learning how to use rain barrels.
The workshop showed how easy it is to use a rain barrel, and how using one to collect rainwater and water crops with it can benefit the environment. Tomi Bergstrom, who ran the workshop and is the DEP’s Western Watershed basin Coordinator, said the use of rain barrels has many advantages, and takes the pressure off sewer systems.
“If you can install a rain barrel to help get that initial flush of water that comes off your roof, it can catch that and slowly be released back into the environment,” Bergstrom said. “So it keeps all the pollution away, and keeps the system from being overwhelmed.”
She said many cities in West Virginia and throughout the U.S. have sewer overflow issues, and the natural minerals of rainwater are actually better for crops than city water. LeeAnne Grogg of the Charleston Storm water Department agreed.
“There’s a lot of proof that the water that comes down, not from our spicket and not from our municipalities, is friendlier to our plant life,” Grogg said.
The event was held in partnership between the DEP’s Nonpoint Source Program and the City of Charleston’s Storm Water Department.