Our four rain barrels upside
down on Winter Break

Today I had no one to drive anywhere or nowhere to go. It was sunny and little bit warmer as it has been the last few days. Doing inside things on a nice day, made me antsy, so I took a walk to a nearby mailbox to mail a letter. On the way to and back from the mailbox I happened to notice that most rain gutters were still hooked up to underground sewage system that leads to main sewage system. Very few homes had rain barrels like I do or even gutter extenders that put water into ground not sewer.

With all the talk about narrowing the street I started to think a good way to make our street and homes more environmentally safe would be to encourage homeowners to divert rain water from the sewer to the ground. I wrote an email to one of my neighbors who run a small garden center but have not heard back so far.

Maybe I should solicit our private Sewage Company and others who encourage less water into the sewer to help. I got my first rain barrel when I noticed my neighbor, a few doors away, had a rain garden and rain barrel that was subsidized by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage Company. My rain garden took root with the help of Sewer Company. Everyone complains when they dump raw sewage into lake and rivers after big rainfall. Rain gardens are okay but the scale of what I am talking about would involve blocks since a gutter extender is less expensive way to go.

These days everything has to be profitable for a private business to consider it. Maybe we need to tighten up the city government law about how much raw sewage they can dump into the rivers and lake. Putting rain water into the ground rather than sewers makes environmental sense, especially since water is becoming more and more valuable these days.

As a kid I remember in the summer time were restricted on what days we could water our grass and gardens. Now sitting next to greatest fresh water reservoir in the world, the great lakes, we do not hear about conserving water. Also rain water does not have the chlorine and other things we put into tap water these days.

So let it rain Milwaukee! We will be prepared to keep the waters safe in the ground where it can profit the earth and us.

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