Catch the Rain Campaign
The City of Red Lodge hosted a Catch the Rain Campaign for Red Lodge area residents in June 2020. In this window, Red Lodge residents could purchase the necessary materials to connect a rain barrel to their gutter system for a significantly discounted price compared to commercial value. We were hoping to host an in-person workshop for this campaign, but due to COVID-19 health concerns, we will instead provide residents with the hardware kits and 55-gallon drums to convert and install the rain barrels on their own. Download the Installation and Care Manual.
We’ve officially closed orders for the campaign! If you are interested in getting put on a list to receive a 55-gallon drum as they become available and/or to hear about updates on a 2021 program, please send an email request to clong@cityofredlodge.com.
In short, yes. Montana has no regulations or laws against rainwater harvesting. Some Homeowners Associations may limit or restrict the use of rain barrels, so it’s best practice to review your HOA’s rules before moving forward with rain barrel installation.
Rain barrels are relatively low maintenance, but taking a few simple steps can expand the lifetime of your water collection system.
Make sure to use collected water between rain events so that there’s room for the next storm. This will help water from stagnating and ensure that you’re collecting as much water as possible.
Before and after you set up your rain barrel, make sure that your gutters are fairly clean. Leaves and pine needles won’t clog the diverter but decomposed organic matter will. How well you maintain your gutters affects the degree of performance of your system as well as reflecting on how often you should clean the inside of your barrel. Consider installing gutter guards or screens on the top of roof downspouts to prevent leaves, debris, and critters from entering your barrel.
How to clean the barrel:
- Drain barrel
- Disconnect the barrel from your downspout.
- Flip barrel over and drain any remaining stagnant water.
- Remove any sediment or foreign materials from the barrel. A long-handled brush or coat hanger works well for this.
- Clean out the barrel’s interior. There are lots of cleaning solution options out there, so feel free to research what suits your needs best.
- Here is one recipe: Use 2 tsp. of Hydrogen Peroxide, 2 tsp. of vinegar, and 2 tsp. of Dawn detergent per gallon of water. Pour the solution into barrel and secure the bung caps. Coat the inside walls by rolling the barrel back and forth on its side. Let stand for a few minutes, remove the bung caps, then rinse it out.
Once the barrel is clean, store upside down ideally indoors or outside with a tarp cover.
Before temperatures drop to freezing each year, you’ll need to disconnect and store your barrel for the winter. This can be done in the following steps:
- Drain your barrel. This is to prevent any water left in the barrel from expanding and potentially cracking and damaging the barrel.
- Disconnect the FlexiFit Diverter and fill the hose, then screw in the winter hole cover in your downspout. To keep track of the winter hole cover in the summer months, you could tie the hole cover to your fill hose so you don’t lose it!
- Take the opportunity to clean your gutters and the inside of the rain barrel. See the next question for a cleaning guide.
- Turn the barrel upside down to prevent water accumulation and store inside if possible. If the barrel must be stored outside, remove the hose parts and cover it with a tarp for the winter to prevent damage.
Although rainwater is natural, it’s not safe to drink without filtering or treating. This is because the collected water is picking up all the bird droppings, dead bugs, debris particulates, and any pollution from the atmosphere and from your roof. For this same reason, plants love the slightly acidic rainwater that aids the provision of nutrients to plants more effectively than mineral-laden tap water.
- When watering a vegetable garden, it’s important to water at the ground level rather than on the plant itself to avoid accidentally ingesting the rainwater once the vegetables have been harvested.
- You can also use collected rainwater to water the lawn, but we’d recommend you increase your storage capacity before attempting to water your entire lawn with just 55 gallons of water. Keep in mind that the higher elevation the barrel is above the watering point, the higher the water pressure will be and the easier it will be to water your plants.
- Collected rainwater can be used to wash the car or siding of your home.
- You could connect a hose to the spigot and divert the water to a rain garden to further decrease your water footprint.
Rain gardens, when planned and installed correctly, can be a very effective as well as visually appealing, stormwater management tool for homeowners. If you have noticed standing water on your lawn, detected soil erosion, or need to move stormwater away from your home’s foundation, a rain garden may be right for you. Rain gardens help to manage the stormwater that falls on your property thereby preventing it from entering and overwhelming the storm sewer system. They collect and hold rainwater for a brief time (less than 48 hours) slowly releasing it through the soil or allowing plants to soak it up.
Determining the location, size, and slope of your rain garden are all keys to the success of this green solution. Most rain gardens are between four and eight inches deep in order to provide enough capacity to handle the average rainfall. If the rain garden is too shallow, it needs to be very large and if it’s too deep, it might take too long to drain and result in standing water and mosquito breeding. According to the 2018 Red Lodge Stormwater PER, roughly 15% of the soil in Red Lodge has a slow or very slow infiltration rate. This means water has high runoff potential in these areas. If the soil in your backyard has a high clay content, you may need to add organic matter to the soil. This will improve drainage and will help to lighten the clay to make it better for planting.
Rain gardens can be very low maintenance, but very visually appealing.
Choose flowers, shrubs, and trees native to our region. These plants can tolerate short intervals of standing water or drought, have deep roots that let the water soak into the soil, and don’t require fertilizers or other chemicals.
Spring and fall are the best times to start your garden. In spring, the soil is easier to dig and the rainy weather means less initial watering. Perennials often do best when planted in fall when they have sent all of their energy to their roots for winter.
Source: https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1218/ 
For further reading, the Publications Available from the Bridger Plant Materials Center offers a wealth of information on native and pollinator-friendly plants that would be well suited for a rain garden in Red Lodge.
This depends on how much higher your barrel is than the point you’re watering. The higher the elevation, the greater the water pressure will be at its lowest point. Each foot in elevation change is equal to 0.433 PSI (pounds per square inch) of water pressure.
So, if you place your barrel on a 3 ft. stand and your barrel is full, you will have 2.598 PSI of water pressure. To keep that level of pressure, the base of your barrel needs to be 2-3 ft higher than the highest point of your garden. Examples when using drip irrigation: If your plants are on the ground, your barrel should be elevated 2 ft. or more. If your plants are in a 1 ft. raised garden bed, your barrel should be elevated 3 ft. or more, 4 ft. or more with 2 ft. raised beds, and so on.
A common base for barrels is cinderblocks and level concrete slabs, but you could also build a platform out of bricks or wood. Keep in mind that a full 55-gallon barrel will weigh nearly 500 pounds, so make sure the base is sturdy!
