Is It Safe To Collect Rain Water On A Roof

Roof runoff has many outdoor uses.

Is it safe to collect rain water on a roof.

It is important to find out if the material or the paint used on your roof or in your gutters could contaminate your rainwater. Safe roofing materials for rainwater harvesting. Germs and other contaminants while useful for many things rainwater is not as pure as you might think so you can t assume it s safe to drink. Drinkable rainwater can be collected from most roof types including undamaged asbestos colorbond zincalume and galvanized steel.

And also that a first flush diverter will remove a considerable number of the pathogens but not enough to be safe. The study has shown that water from a roof can contain about 60 cfu 100ml of coliform bacteria relatively harmless to 50 000 cfu 100ml very likely to contain harmful pathogens and not safe to use and that a slow sand filter will vary somewhat in its ability to remove pathogens. This is called the first wash and will be discussed in detail in the first filtering chapter. Use it to wash cars and outdoor equipment and to rinse patios.

However still this water can be used if the first flush of water is diverted from the roof tops. The quality of water coming off of a roof during a rain tends to improve as the rain continues. Rain can wash different types of contaminants into the water you collect for example bird poop on your roof could end up in your water barrel or tank. Although it is the homeowner s responsibility to ensure drinking water is clean he says information on the safe collection and storage of roof collected rainwater seems not to be reaching many.