On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:44:57 -0800, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 1/5/2011 10:19 AM harry spake thus:

On Jan 5, 5:56 pm, Edge wrote:

I know its winter. But being retired and with idle thoughts I am
looking at my neighbor's rain barrel that during the summer
collects rain runoff from his roof to water his plants. Our houses
in the development have basements with sump pumps. My own sump pump
goes off more regularly than it rains around here in the summer.
Since the sump collects clean ground water, is it okay to divert
that water to a rain barrel? Seems a better idea than dumping and
wasting that water into the storm sewers.

No reason why not. The water from my driveway runs into an underground
tank I use to water the garden.

So you don't mind a little oil in your garden soil, mixed in with just a
dollop, say, of transmission fluid, brake fluid or whatever?

To answer the OP's question, it would be a matter of what's in that sump
water. Easy to speculate that it's OK, but just as easy to guess that
there might be stuff in the soil, and therefore the water, that you
might not want in the soil you're watering. (Like E. coli?)

You might think about capturing some sump water and having it tested.
Well it won't have more e-coli or other crap in it than you get off a
roof where the birds crap on it all day for weeks between rains. And
if you are worried, throw a bit of bleach in the barrel every once in
a while.