Looking for a “rainy day” project?  Get your tools ready – we’re making a rain barrel.  Not to worry.  It involves little cost and little labor and the benefits are huge.

A rain barrel is a system that collects and stores rainwater directly from your roof via your gutter.  It’s also a great green craft that protects the environment and saves you money! 

A rain barrel can save most homeowners on average 1,300 gallons of water during the summer months because you can store and use the water from the rain barrel instead of water from the tap to water your garden or lawn or wash your car.  So sav­ing water with a rain barrel not only helps to protect the environment, it saves you money and energy because of decreased use of treated tap water. 

Some other benefits of having a rain barrel are that water from storm drains is diverted into the barrel instead of adding to runoff to streams.  Also, your garden can stay healthy with water that is free of chlorine, lime or calcium.  So whether you want to show off your creative side and build your very own rain barrel or want to buy a ready-made one, a rain barrel is the right step towards your newer, healthier and greener garden!

To create your own rain barrel all you need are these basic materials:

• 55 gallon polyethylene plastic barrel
• 2 inch male threaded by 2 inch pipe adapter
• Tube silicone sealer/cement
• Outdoor faucet valve
• 1/2 inch threaded bushing
• 1/2 inch female threaded socket
• Teflon tape
• Screen fabric
• Cinder blocks
• Optional – paint to match your house color  

And these basic tools:

• Jig Saw
• Power Drill with 3/4 inch Spade Bit
• Scissors
• Pipe Wrench and Pliers
• Screw Driver
• Hack Saw

This green craft is simple to construct.   Just click here to get the simple assembly instructions to make your rain barrel.

Making a rain barrel at my house was easier than I imagined and I had fun while doing it. So much fun that I actually constructed three! What I find most enjoyable is watching how quickly it fills up on a rainy day. Also, once it’s filled, using it and knowing that I created this rain barrel myself gives me great pleasure. I would recommend it to all who are looking for a fun and easy project that will help protect our environment and save them money.

There are other EPA employees in our Philadelphia office that have also been showing their handy sides and installing rain barrels at their homes and in their communities.  They all talk about how great their barrels work and how they either want to get or already have gotten a second barrel to store more water. 

One of my co-workers cut up an old hose to use as a device to convey the water from the barrel to her garden.  She told me, “When I want to water the garden, I open the valve & let gravity do the rest.”  Other colleagues are such expert rain barrel craftsmen that they have set up rain barrel programs in their communities.  Fred told us that his Township Environmental Advisory Committee assembles homemade rain barrels using local volunteers and sells them to residents at $35 a piece (also check out Fred’s blog about rain barrels from last summer).

Want to take your garden to an even higher level, with an even greater environmental impact?  Having a rain barrel that drains right into a rain garden is the best combination for managing stormwater on your property.  Check out our blog on rain gardens to see how you can join the Rain Gardens for the Bays Campaign to green our neighborhoods and protect our streams and bays by creating thousands of rain gardens in local watersheds! 

Do you have a rain barrel at your house?  What other green projects have you done or can you think of?  Share your ideas in the comments section!

Our friends at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office have a very informative series of videos called Bay 101 that are great for learning the issues that the Bay faces and how it’s getting cleaned up.   This video about stormwater runoff to the Chesapeake is one of these.  Stormwater is an issue threatening healthy waters all over the Mid Atlantic region.  With growing populations and expanding urban and suburban development, more areas are being paved over with impervious surfaces rather than the forested or grassed areas that were there before.  This means that instead of the water soaking into the ground, it runs over the paved surfaces into storm drains, which take that stormwater right into waterways.  You know those little labels you sometimes see on the sidewalk that say “No dumping, drains to river”?  Well, they aren’t just for decoration…it’s true.

Now, this runoff harms the Bay and other local water ways because the runoff picks up all kinds of stuff as it washes over paved surfaces.  Just think of all the dirt and grime on the street: oil or gas leaks from cars, litter, dirt, grit, fertilizer from lawns, and who knows what else.  Click the pic to watch the video and hear much more about how stormwater harms the Chesapeake and what we can do about it.  Check out the other great videos the Bay Program has while you’re there.  How do you see stormwater affecting the Chesapeake or your local waterways?

Are you a mobile apps developer? Do you know one? Well now is your chance to show us what you can do with EPA data on a mobile device!

EPA’s Apps for the Environment Challenge is a contest that puts your tech-savvy to the test.  EPA challenges you to find new ways to combine and deliver environmental data in a mobile app.  You can use EPA data by itself, or combine it with other environmental and health data to make a useful resource for individuals or communities.  Besides addressing one of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s Seven Priorities, the only limit to what you can create is your own imagination!  You have until September 16, 2011 to submit your application, and you can get all the details here.

Not a coder but think you might have the next big idea for an environmental app?  There’s a place for your input.  Visit EPA’s Data and Developer Forum to submit your idea for an app, as well as submit comments or questions about EPA’s existing apps, data resources, and data sets.  The brainstorming has already started, so check out the ideas for apps that others have had to get inspired! 

We’d like to challenge you one step further and encourage you to come up with an app that uses water data about the Mid Atlantic region.  That’s right, we’re talking about a Healthy Waters App!  There are lots of places to find data about the waters of our region.  EPA and state websites have loads of interesting data that includes water quality monitoring and assessment, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), permitted facilities, non-point source projects, drinking water sources and facilities, beach sampling, and clean water grants….just to name a few!  You might also find interesting water data from other federal agencies, like the USGS, Forest Service, National Park Service, or CDC.  What other sources of water data can you think of?

We’d love to hear from you in our own comments section… how would your Healthy Waters App use Mid Atlantic data?  I’m no computer scientist, but if I could make a Healthy Waters App, I think I would make one where I could type in my address (or let my cell phone GPS determine my location) and have it tell me where my drinking water comes from, any consumer confidence reports the facility has issued, what watershed I’m currently in, any impairments nearby waterbodies have, all shown on a map of course.  Or maybe I would want it to tell me where the nearest EPA-funded water project is.  Or maybe I would want to have mobile beach advisory alerts, so I knew when and where it was safe to go for a swim.  Or maybe…

Well that’s enough from me!  Tell us about the Healthy Waters app that you would make, and get cracking on your code to submit your app to the challenge!

The CDC’s recent blog about emergency preparedness for the zombie apocalypse got us thinking about Healthy Waters in emergency situations, undead or otherwise.  How can the safety of water and the health of people be maintained during an emergency, and what preparations can be taken in advance to be ready for any issues you may face before, during and after an event?  Whether you are a citizen trying to protect your own health or a facility operator responsible for protecting the health of many others in your community, the best time to plan to protect your source of water is before an emergency.  And whether the emergency involves zombies, a hurricane, or floods, preparedness for water emergencies is key. 

Everyone depends on a safe supply of water to operate their business, a hospital or school.  Water is needed to fight fires and it restores hope in communities hit hard by natural disasters.  But natural disasters or other emergencies can disrupt drinking water supplies and wastewater disposal systems.  Conservation or emergency disinfection orders can be issued to affected water system consumers in the aftermath of an event, if the safety of water supplies cannot be immediately ensured. 

The tornado outbreak at the end of April 2011 hit states in the southeast the hardest, but in Region 3, storms in Virginia resulted in damage to a number of water systems in the southwestern part of the state, mainly because of power being knocked out by high winds. In some areas, boil water advisories were issued because the water was not safe to drink.  Water systems and water treatment plants need power to treat and distribute water, so it’s important to restore power as soon as possible, either through emergency generators or priority restoration of service.  This protects health of people (by ensuring that affected populations have access to safe drinking water), pets and water bodies (by making sure that waste gets treated before it is discharged to rivers).  

Have your own septic system?  Be aware of actions you need to take to protect you and your family if your system becomes flooded.  Have a private well for your drinking water?  Check out our blog “Is your well well?” for information about how to maintain the quality of your private well or disinfect it if necessary.

There are both planning and recovery efforts in any emergency event.  That’s why EPA has provided resources on suggested pre- and post- disaster event activities to water facilities, like tabletop exercises, staff training, and facility evaluation.  EPA has also provided grants to purchase emergency generators so they have a backup source of power in case of an outage.  To learn more about emergency generators see our regional factsheet.  

There’s also the Water/Wastewater Agencies Response Network, a network that lets water utilities in an emergency situation request the help of other utilities, which can provide emergency assistance, from people to equipment.  It can also be used for smaller, non-disaster emergencies, as it was recently during a water main break in Harrisburg, when nearby water companies responded to the PaWARN activation to assist with the repairs. If your utility is not a member, contact your WARN Chair.

Have more questions about water security in the Mid Atlantic Region?  Find out who to ask at EPA. 

Have you assembled an emergency kit in your house, or taken any other preparatory measures for an emergency?  Do you know of any preparations being done in your community?  Get involved with community base resiliency!

The flagship of the EPA is gearing up for battle to keep our nation’s coastal waters clean! That’s right – the United States Naval Ship (USNS) Bold turned Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV) Bold is EPA’s only ocean and coastal monitoring vessel. Designed to meet sampling and data analysis needs, the OSV Bold is outfitted with state-of-the art equipment used to collect water and sediment samples. These can be processed and analyzed in onboard laboratories or later onshore.

Click on the picture to watch a video overview of the OSV Bold. On that site you’ll find more videos and more info! We currently have Region 3 Water Protection Division employees aboard so stay tuned for narratives of life on the OSV Bold!