"rlz" wrote in message
...
On Apr 23, 3:03 pm, Paul Drahn wrote:
On 4/22/2012 9:00 AM, Hank wrote:



On Apr 20, 6:46 am, Kelvin wrote:
Hi all. I live in a drought area and my (Victorian) house has a large
underground cistern for collecting rainwater. It is empty and has not
been used for many years (I suppose since mains water was installed)
and I'm wondering whether I could use it again by diverting drainpipes
or just the overflow from water butts. Does anyone know anything about
this sort of thing? I wouldn't like to make the ground soggy and have
the house tip into it. Am I being alarmist. Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

My daughter put one in a couple months ago. 1500 gallon. She has a
well but it wasn't supplying enough H2O. She had to get a permit
(which you may not). Do you have a septic or city sewer? If you are
just using it to water the lawn, you shouldn't have a problem. If you
plan on drinking it and there is a septic system close, it may leach
into it if either leaks, so be careful.

Like others have said, it may leak. You can get water delivered the
first time pretty cheap and a lot easier than digging down and putting
in piping to fill it off your roof. Fill it and see if it leaks before
preceding any further. If it doesn't leak, then you can go to the
expense of a pump, piping and etc.

Hank

Does anyone remember the court case quite a few years back in Colorado
where a woman set up rain barrels around her house and filled them from
the rain and melted snow. She used the water on her garden, as I recall.

A local rancher who had water rights for all the water from the creek
that flowed through the woman's property. He had her arrested for
stealing his water. The judge agreed and made her dump all the water and
never collect water again.

Perhaps only in Colorado, but could also be true in other states.

Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I've heard of other cases very similar here in Colorado.
Unfortunately, Colorado water rights are a serious matter, as Colorado
is only one of two states where water only flows out of state. I live
in a suburb of Denver, and the city has an ordinance that homeowners
can not collect rain water.

Robin

And here in Ohio we get credits on our sewer bill if we install rain barrels
and plant swales to catch the rain water so it soaks into the ground rather
than running into the storm drains.

Tomsic