If you go to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection website, you’ll see that nearly half the items on the homepage are about water. There’s the large scale, like protecting and maintaining the sewer systems and watersheds, and also the smaller scale, such as their rain barrel and residential water conservation programs. As part of their “Residential Water Survey Program,” they are giving away free water conservation kits to apartment tenants and private homeowners in New York City. This kit includes a low-flow showerhead, faucet aerators, and other devices that can be easily installed in your apartment without having to deal with your landlord. This program has the potential to make a positive impact in two really important ways: 1) by conserving water (obviously), and 2) by making residents more aware, in general, of water issues. Hopefully this awareness will lead people to look for ways to conserve water and limit their contribution to pollution in more areas of their lives.
If you live in New York City, get your free water conservation kit at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/water_conservation_kit_2009.pdf.
I saw on the link that this offer was only available through May 2008…. Is there perhaps another attempt (post economic crisis) at doing something similar? Alternately, were there any reports on how many water kits were requested, or news on their effectiveness?
They are still giving these out- the offer was extended until August 10, 2010.
I have used the RainReserve water kit and it works very well. And I am glad to hear that the NYC DEP will extend this awesome offer.
Great to hear that this program has been extended. NYC has done an amazing job managing the use and security of water — I remember seeing a chart once showing how water use in the city is still below 1970’s levels, even though population is way up. Let’s hope they keep up the good work.
Good information! I like rainwater harvesting.
Now there are wide selectioins, wooden rain barrels, hard plastic barrels, pop up ones and more.
I was considering a flexible one. such like tarpaulin made, like this pattern, https://www.htcn.com/product/flexible-water-bag-tank-rain-barrel.html
By the way, is 200gal too large for yard use?
Any suggestions will be highly appricated!!