Rain barrels and asphalt roofs...

[Tussiemussies]

Was reading around about using rain barrels, and one site said that if you have an asphalt roof that you cannot use the water. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks.

[fidgiegirl]

Not for drinking. I don't know that you would use ANY rainbarrell water for drinking, but anyway. We use ours on all kinds of gardens. I suppose though that there could be an argument made for not using it to water food crops.

In my neck of the woods 99% of the roofs are asphalt.

[iris lily]

Was reading around about using rain barrels, and one site said that if you have an asphalt roof that you cannot use the water. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks.

I'd want to see a scientific study, not a random website, that supports the fear mongering before I worried about it.

[Tussiemussies]

I did find this that says the same thing, because of the chemicals on roofing material, collected rainwater is not good to use on vegetable gardens. It's okay for trees shrubs and flowers that won't serve as edible flowers:

http://tylertork.com/diyrainbarrels/safety.html

[Wildflower]

We use our rain barrel water on everything except our edibles garden. And don't drink it either....

Problem is in this drought we're having there's no rain barrel water to be had. :(

[Wildflower]

I'd want to see a scientific study, not a random website, that supports the fear mongering before I worried about it.

In this case, it's not fearmongering.

DH went to a class on making rain barrels at a nearby botanical center. They said NEVER to use rain barrel water on anything that you grow to eat, if you have an asphalt roof that it runs off... it is full of toxins, etc. DH says it's a proven fact, so I'll take his word for it, since usually he's pretty skeptical about most things. ;)

[bae]

I just spent several years helping rewrite my county's environmental regulations. There was a mountain of data in the science we were using about various roofing materials generating all sorts of nasty stuff, which informed our stormwater, habitat, and wetlands regulations.

Different roofing materials produce quite different gunk though, you'd really need to look at exactly what you had on the roof to decide.

[ToomuchStuff]

Our local PBS station had a story a while back on Green roofs and such. I only caught a few minutes of it, when eating lunch while helping out a friend. It did make me wonder why we don't see more cisterns now days, instead of using city water for all the yard stuff.