Rainwater as a resource
Rain barrels can enhance your home and help prevent flooding
SYDNEY — Rain is a resource society can use and should: this is what Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton hopes to convey with its graphic design contest for ACAP's summer rain barrel giveaway.
“Stormwater issues are increasing with climate change, because we're having more frequent storms and heavier rainfalls,” said ACAP Cape Breton project manager Jen Cooper.
Much of the infrastructure in use today wasn't built for the world we're living in, with its heavier rain and snowstorms and more severe extreme weather events. This is resulting in more frequent minor to moderate flooding events in Cape Breton.
“So, what we can do about it as a community is, we can hold water, we can store water and soak it in, when possible,” said Cooper, adding the human ecosystem is now an urban ecosystem, which means many more impermeable surfaces.
“So when water hits that, it's just gonna run off of it and then once it gets into the drains or into the river wherever it's headed, it's getting there in very high flows. It's best if we can try to slow that water down and soak it in where it lands.”
The graphic design contest, sponsored by CBRM wastewater operations, is open to community members across the municipality. Participants are asked to create a design demonstrating how rain is a resource by drawing upon information in the Homeowner's Guide to Flood Prevention and Recovery.
Submissions are due by May 28 and the winner will receive $250 and their design will be affixed to every barrel.
The barrels, which will largely be diverted from landfills, will be used to catch rain from downspouts at houses, which can be used later for things such as watering gardens or washing cars.
This, Cooper said, is one method to prevent flooding of local sewer systems, as well as a way of conserving tap water. It can also prevent stormwater from washing litter and pollutants into drainage systems.
There are two types of sewer systems in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality:
• Sanitary systems, which collect what drains from homes and businesses (what flushes down our toilets and drains, including sinks, showers and washing machines). This wastewater is directed to nearby wastewater treatment facilities or to raw water outfalls where wastewater treatment facilities will be constructed in the future.
• Stormwater sewer systems, like storm drains, which collect rain and snowmelt from the streets. They are designed to direct water to natural drainage systems such as brooks, rivers and streams.
“Oftentimes the stormwater infrastructure is just drainage and it's just helping water to drain away … into natural places where water collects,” said Cooper. “It does pick up what's on the road: heavy metals from the cars, fuels from the cars, litter.
“Even carrying soil and silt creates siltation and then introducing that silt to an aquatic ecosystem can be harmful to that system, because the organisms who live there need to breathe that water and now it's full of silt. They can't see to hunt, they can't breathe it clearly and it becomes an unhealthy system.”
So, a combination of techniques that can include rain gardens and storing rainwater in barrels can ease the impact of what is being diverted to our aging infrastructure.
“You can fill a barrel, a rain barrel, in like an afternoon if it's raining hard enough,” said Cooper.
“So if you imagine your entire neighborhood of rooftops, all running off a barrel's worth each, in one afternoon, then you can understand how it quickly overwhelms stormwater systems and even natural drainage systems.”
ACAP Cape Breton will advertise with information on getting a barrel once the contest is complete. Anyone looking to get one can also contact them through their Facebook page, twitter page, using the contact information at the bottom of their website or in their office once the lockdown has lifted.