Residents Roll Out to Get Free Rain Barrels

Dozens of people waited in line early Saturday morning to take advantage of a rain barrel giveaway at Hollywood City Hall.

The giveaway was part of the Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team’s effort to distribute 600 barrels in conjunction with its series of 30-minute workshops in neighborhoods across the city to teach residents about the benefits of harvesting rainwater.

The water collected in the barrels may be used to water plants. It's a conservation measure that can lower residents' water bills.

The Rain Barrel Pilot Project, funded by the Department of Water & Power, aims to inform residents about the potential to collect an estimated 7 billion gallons of rainwater runoff citywide. All DWP ratepayers who attend the workshop are eligible to receive one free rain barrel.

At a time when water rates are increasing and a majority of the water is sourced from outside of the community, the situation requires residents to change their landscaping habits, said Sharyn Romano, president of the Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team.

"The government isn’t going to solve all these problems for us," Romano said. "We need to be partipants. This is up to us at our homes and our businesses, in every action that we take, to be true conservationists. Next year when you’re taking out your Christmas lights, you’re going to take out your rain barrel too. It’s all about changing habits and consciousness.”

The barrels are prototypes, explained Romano. Typically rain barrels cost $150 to $200, making them too too expensive for the city to provide its residents. Instead, the city created an affordable alternative by retrofitting trash cans with spigots, overflow valves  and filters to keep out debris and mosquitoes. Romano said the trash can retrofits cost about $50 each to produce.

Residents who received the rain barrels Saturday were instructed to remove a portion of an existing downspout at their house, place the barrel below it and attach a garden hose to the barrel. Once the rainy season is over, residents were told to use the remaining water and store the empty barrel in the garage.

Nancy Traina was among the residents who attended the workshop. She said the rain barrel program is long overdue.

“I look at all the rainwater that washes out and I just think we should be saving this water," Traina said. "It’s so important, especially here in Southern California. We pay a lot for water and we’re taking it from other places that need it.”

Traina had considered installing a rain barrel at her home for the last two years, but the cost was holding her back.

“The ones in catalogs I found were $140 and upwards,” she said. “It depended on the style, the features, how they looked—they would be more and more expensive. Some were made of plastic, some were wood with some kind of liner, that kind of thing and the size was a factor too.”

The Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team’s next workshops will be held April 2 at 9 a.m. at Micheltorena Elementary School in Silver Lake.