Do you have a rain Garden?

It's a great idea. Here is Colorado it is illegal to stop the flow of water. Because the water does not belong to us but to the person who owns the ground water. Thus it is illegal to harvest rainwater. Is that crazy or what? Of course we only get 17" of rain a year so..... Perhaps that is why I've never heard of it before now.
Mobi

Mobi that does sound kind of crazy, but I can totally understand the reasoning of Colorado's law and I have total respect for any state wanting to protect its resourses. In Iowa we have such an erosion problem, as well as people dumping chemicals (usually unknowingly) in our water systems. It really makes a person stop and think about it. I'm Intrigued about a rain garden, but I think I'd rather start a rock garden and/or a tropical garden.

If you decide to go with a rock garden. You might consider joining this club:
The North American Rock Garden Society
it's only $12.00 a year and each January they have a seed exchange. Where you pay $12.50 and send you about 80 packs of different seeds that others in the club have gathered. I don't have a rock garden and joined for the seed exchange but they have a lot of info on plants. Very worth while. Plus an impressive newsletter. Not all of the seeds are rock garden seeds either.

http://www.nargs.org/

I looked up 'rain garden' on Googles, but I am still unsure what a rain garden is. My impression is that it was to absorb the flow of storm rain from roof runoff, etc. so that it doesn't pollute ground water. What pollution? I live in a pretty pristine area that gets more rain than many areas in the lower 48, so maybe I just don't understand the concept. What pollution is spread by storm water?

Pesticides and herbicides that run off into the storm drains. You live in a very lush area so I can't imagine you'd have that problem there. I wish we'd get some of your rain! We only get 17" in an entire year!
Mobi

Mobi Thanks for the tip! Weez, you are lucky, you would'nt believe what I've witnesed people dumping in the street, paint for one, and water used for cleanin 'who know's what', its pretty scary. Maybe this is why several of my family members have had and Died from Cancer. I'm definetly more aware every day about what I'm personally 'dumping' and where. I think our state does a pretty good job of trting to get the word out about chemicals,ect. but I think maybe many people just dont care. You are right about the the 'run - off', thats exactly why the speaker stressed we should try one. I've found out that in our state/county many new business's and/or buildings are required by law to have a run-off drain and erosion control.

Mobi - I know about the laws regarding private cisterns and drainage, but everyone out here harvests rain in barrels, the county actually encourages us to (Adams). Are rainbarrels illegal in Denver? -C

Actually it is illegal in all of Colorado: But I won't tell. I don't think it's enforced. I saw one guy on the news and they were commenting how "great" his harvesting was. Then his county officers came and made him take it down due to water rights issues. So I guess diverting water to make a rain garden would be illegal as well.

Here's a link:
http://www.denverwater.org/cons_xeriscape/conservation/pdfs/colowatersituation.pdf


Harvesting rainwater
While this issue is very complex, the bottom line is that it is illegal under
Colorado water rights. Although no specific statute has yet been written
specifically directed at harvesting rainwater, the act of intercepting and
diverting the water could be in violation Colorado water rights. As strange
as it may seem, if a person were to capture and divert rainwater it could
negatively impact the senior rights of another.
What a person should do to “harvest” rainwater is to get a decree from the
water courts for that purpose, establishing that the practice would not be
injurious to another’s water rights. If another water right holder in the basis
felt that the harvesting was impacting their water supply, they could take it
to court. Any rainwater harvesting system would also have to follow local
zoning, building and plumbing codes.
On a large scale, some cities in California have had landscape architects
design systems to capture runoff water from city streets, parking lots,
rooftops and other landscapes, and divert it into storage facilities for reuse.
This large-scale practice would obviously be a water right issue in
Colorado.

Wow, better keep my babies well hidden then. At least I can take solace in the fact that the water I collect goes to the same place that it would have originally:-) -C

I guess I forget how truly fortunate I am concerning pollutants and precipitation. Here we are more concerned with diverting the water from flooding us out, not collecting it! There is never a shortage of water here. One can drive a well around our area and hit water at 10 or 12 ft, and good water at 20. We live close to sea level. We seldom 'collect' water because the open containers serve as nurseries for the mosquito larvae.

As for pollutants, our only saving grace is our sparse population. Many of the people here pay no heed to soil and water contamination. We've been battling with the neighbors over a pile of smashed automobiles they heaped up on the edge of our pond. None of the fluids were drained. Here is a lovely view of it.

The other day, my DH had a service call up in one of our little subdivisions and came across a lot with several 'supersacks' of used sandblasting sand and several rusting 55 gallon barrels of some foul liquid that smells like lacquer thinner. It was darkly humorous to see a 'For Sale' sign posted on the lot.

The Supersacks are a little over a cubic yard in size. The sandblasting sand has been used, which means that it contains paint chips. These paint chips are often lead based.

Weez, can your community do anything about the neighbor with the junk cars? Sometimes a complaint will warrant a clean-up. We have messy neighbors behind us, I just keep planting things against our back fence to 'hide' their junk.

Hey, Mom, we've called every environmental agency we can think of, and they all promise to come out and take a look, but it never happens. The wheels turn exceedingly slow with governmental agencies. We just hope to alert them to a potential problem in hopes that we will not be held responsible for any contamination... a fruitless hope.

wow, thats a shame, at least you've tried. Maybe if you keep at it they'll get tired of hearing about it and do something for a change.

Sometimes a pristine environment is vulnerable to big problems. These folks are clueless. They just want to move a problem from point A to point B. We'll keep calling people, but no one will respond until several people have complained. It's certainly not a problem unique to our area, but the less populous, the less concern.

If none of the liquids haven't been drain perhaps the hazardous material people would come and look at it. They get a little concerned over things like that.

Just a thought.
Mobi

Thank, Mobi, but we've already called DEC, the Natural Resources Agency, the borough, the state... they all take down our info and promise to get back to us, but it just doesn't happen. It's very frustrating. So, I suppose a floating rain garden in our pond might be in order!

I wonder how the weed killers people spread on their lawns affect the ground water in a populated area? After all, it leaches down into the soil, and eventually into the water system, I would think. Does Colorado get much rain? Is it feast or famine?

The average yearly precipitation in Colorado is 17 inches. In contrast, the San Luis Valley and parts of south central Colorado receive an average of less than 12 inches of precipitation each year while many mountainous regions receive an average of 40 inches of precipitation or more each year. This can be snow, rain and hail. I live on the front range so we get about 17" average. Semi-arid. My garden has suffered these last few years because we are experiencing a drought right now. One year I lost nearly all the new perennials I put in but I bought them from Bluestone Perennials and they replaced them all for nothing. I love that place. I do the bulk of my buying from them.
This year is looking better though.

Mobi

Last summer was the driest one I can recall. The land around here is gravel based, so everything drains off quickly. A few days without rain, and it's a real dustbowl around here.