Portland rain has ripple effect

Precipitation collection good for gardens, streams

By Nancy Hill

Pamplin Media Group, Sep 11, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jon Elliott (right) talks barrels with Der Lovett at the Rainbarrel Man Co.’s display garden. Elliott’s completed barrel covers and do-it-yourself kits let homeowners disguise their plastic rain catchers.

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Portlanders know rain. According to the National Weather Service, the city averages approximately 37 inches of rain annually.

For nine to 10 months of the year, Portland is saturated with water, and residents keep umbrellas within reach.

Many wish that rain would just go away — but that has not deterred Northeast Portland entrepreneur Jon Elliott from founding the Rainbarrel Man Co., an enterprise that sells barrels to capture the rain.

“We shouldn’t take water for granted,” Elliott says. “Water is one of the most precious resources we have.”

Elliott, a tall man given to wearing kilts with his hiking boots, acknowledges that when he first used rain barrels, he had no idea of their environmental value.

“I was working for a company that received products in large white plastic drums,” he says. “I brought some home to store tools in and put them in the yard because I didn’t have any other place for them. When the rainy season came along, they filled with water.”

At that time, Elliott was married, and he and his wife were remodeling a Victorian house.

“We wanted it to be as accurate as possible,” he explains, “and we found out that during Victorian times houses all had rain barrels, since there wasn’t any indoor plumbing. So we decided to put a rain barrel at every downspout. We used the water we collected in our garden.”

The only problem was, the rain barrels weren’t especially attractive. So Elliott recycled wood from a pallet, stained it, bought some banding and banding tools, and made an attractive “coat” for them.

Soon Elliott’s friends were lining up to have him make rain barrels for them. Many of the requests came from people concerned about the environment, and they taught Elliott about the benefits of harvesting rain.

The benefits just multiply

“I’d seen our garden improve since we used rainwater in it,” Elliote says, attributing the change to the purity of the water, “but I hadn’t given much thought to the fact that when rain travels to waterways, it picks up pesticides, animal wastes, detergent from washing cars, engine oil, litter and all sorts of other debris.

“Then the rain carries all that nasty stuff right into our lakes and rivers and streams,” he says. “By catching that water before it can pick those things up, we’re helping to keep pollution out of our water.”

Elliott did additional research, discovering that too much water runoff from roofs also contributes to stream erosion and destroys natural habitats. Rain barrels also divert rain away from basements and can reduce water bills.

Elliott started selling barrels at farmers markets in Vancouver, Wash., and Gresham, and now he has a small shop off Northeast 30th Avenue near Alberta Street.

The plastic drums Elliott uses for his product come from local food distributors. “They can’t reuse the 55-gallon drums, so they just sit in storage or go into landfills.

The barrels were used for soy sauce or cooking oil, so nothing toxic has ever been in them. I pressure-wash them, then cover them with Western red cedar,” he says.

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