On 11/25/2015 4:38 PM, Fran Farmer wrote:
On 21/11/2015 5:23 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 11/20/2015 9:00 AM, songbird wrote:
David E. Ross wrote:
...rainwater capture, swales, seeps, soaks, etc...
Where I live, the soils are so mineralized that any ground water
(including captured rain) is unfit for agricultural use, let alone
domestic use. We do have seeps and springs in the area. During a
drought about 30 years ago, however, a study determined that mixing only
one part of ground water with nine parts of California Water Project
water would yield something that would be illegally tainted.

that sounds rather extreme, but i'd assume
the native plants manage.

rainwater capture in barrels and lined ponds would
be another option for such an extreme case. water
right from the roof and other hard surfaces would
avoid most of the problem.


songbird


I recently had my roof's rain gutters cleaned. The gunk removed would
likely be harmless to my garden but would definitely not be potable.
There were several years of ash fallout from brush fires and Italian
cypress needles from my neighbor's trees. I often hear squirrels
running across my roof, so I would not be surprised if the gunk included
squirrel droppings.

Hmmmm. I doubt whether any of that would be of concern to Australian rural
dwellers such as myself. We collect rain water from our roof and although
I have no idea what a squrrel poop looks like, bird poop is not a problem
and possum poo (not opossum) being from a marsupial is not seen as a
problem. Our roof water is used in our house (unfiltered and untreated)
for all the usual sorts of domestic activities.
snip...

Even if there were concerns about the quality of collected water for
consumption the cost of equipment needed to clean it up, at least in
smallish quantities, is not extreme. There are pathogens in every sort of
excreta and what is there and what it will do is pretty hit-and-miss for
any individual. For the garden, I'd say that anything goes since what is
coming from the roof is exactly what would have fallen on the garden.