Deck scuppers for rainwater collection

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Kinda odd to hear an Aussie with Mike's phobia towards collected rainwater for drinking. It's not just yotties who routinely drink the stuff, but thousands of rural Australians who rely upon roof-top collection for all their domestic water supplies.

Jim

Yep, grew up in a place where everyone has a rain water tank for potable water. Every time I go back there I recognize the particular taste of tea made with "tank" water. Probably the result of the mineral makeup of the local dust and the bird **** off the corrugated iron roofs.

The town has scheme water drawn from the local river and treated. However there are times when you would not drink even treated water. During droughts weakened stock fall into the river and decay and whilst it probably has no large effect on the potability of the treated water folks just don't like to drink it.

I lived in Holland for a while and a couple of times a week the milk man would leave a large bottle of water with the milk (Sensible folks the Dutch, you could also get beer and very tasty fruit pies delivered with your milk) When I asked the land lord why we needed bottled water he said the scheme water came from the Rhine River and with millions of French and Germans pissing into it before it got to Holland the Dutch did not particularly like drinking it.

The point of this digression is that when we drink scheme water we a relying upon it having been properly stored and treated by public servants. I rest my case, tending to the opinion that provided we allow the decks to wash off before we divert the rain water into potable water storage it is probably less likely to be harmful than that from the tap in most places. Them country folks can't all be wrong.

[masonc]

Nigel Calder, in his latest book, describes hurriedly washing the deck in downpours, then blocking the scuppers and opening the water fills to fill the tanks.