use of rainwater

[john6]

I live in a town with a massive steel works nearby, I am thinking of using rainwater to water change as I am going on to meter and I use about 500 litres for a water change every fortnight (2 large tanks).
Will the rainwater be ok to use straight from the collection barrel considering where I live, if not, what and how do I make it safe for use?

 

[Maf 2500]

Without living there it is difficult to say. Is there visible fallout? How far away from the plant are you and do the prevailing winds blow the pollution towards your property?

Professional rain collecting systems have a mechanism whereby the first x litres are dumped to waste which gets rid of all the detritus and environmental pollutants that have accumulated on the roof while it was dry, and the subsequent, cleaner water is stored. They are expensive though. You could maybe rig up something manual to switch between storing or not storing the water. Or it might be best that you do not use the water from the first rain after a drought for your tank, but it is okay at all other times? Like I said at the start, it is difficult to assess the situation accurately without being there.

 

[Connswater]

steel works

I wonder if you are aware of any issues with heavy metals, or overly acidic rainfall affecting your local trees, lakes, ponds and perhaps rivers? All I can say is that pigeon poop affects the quality of the rainwater I collect from my roof, not when rain has been heavy and long lasting but when I get a shower after a long dry spell. It massively pushes up the Phosphates and to a lesser extent the Nitrates. Ideal for the garden but not my finely balanced aquarium. British steel plants - despite the punishing competitive implications - have invested in reducing environmental impacts so it would be good to think your rainwater is relatively good.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I use about 500 litres for a water change every fortnight (2 large tanks).

You are going to need a massive storage tank, probably 10,000 litres to make sure you don't run out of water every summer.

Will the rainwater be ok to use straight from the collection barrel considering where I live, if not, what and how do I make it safe for use?

You can use the Daphnia bioassay.

Cheers Darrel

 

[Simon Cole]

I used to assess a metal processing company in the UK for their environmental legal compliance. For the first two hours of one audit, the manager locked me in the basement, possibly in the hope that I would not notice that the dioxin and furan emissions were in breach of their environmental permit. They knew that their scrubbing filter was broken and needed to be fixed, but they continued as normal. The Environment Agency were reporting no problems and I kind of think that was because they were a bit negligent really. I was rather glad to get 100 miles further south and to avoid breathing in all that junk. There are usually significantly elevated metal concentrations on the rooftops of buildings surrounding these premises; asbestos and all manner of other nasties also get deposited by dust or by the rain - rooftop contamination builds up over the years to rather toxic levels. <Scandals> are rather common. Personally I would just get a carbon cartridge filter <like this one for £49.99>. I should imagine that the added benefit is that it would remove the risk of trematodes like Eustrongyloides - which can be <spread by pooping wetland birds>. Pollution events will happen in real-time anyway so in your case I would prevent proactively.

 

[simon_the_plant_nerd]

The tap water conditioner I use says it “detoxifies” heavy metals. How it does that and to what extent, I have no idea.

 

[john6]

Thanks guys.