6 ms·

I would hope they have some kind of water filtering setup.

mulmen 2y ago
Addressed in TFA: > Green roofs might help soak up some rainwater to hydrate the plants up there, but blue-green roofs go a step further with additional infrastructure that gathers up the liquid, stores it, and dispenses it to the building’s residents for watering plants and flushing toilets.
- bruce511 2y ago
  Humans are good at adapting, so when events like droughts or floods come along, we look at ways to adapt to that. Some years ago we had a drought here. Now lots of residential houses have water tanks collecting (at a minimum) rain water. Some are supplemented by ground water, via well points etc. Once you have this, this water is useful in lots of cases. We use it for toilets, watering plants, washing outside spaces and cars, top up the pool, plus other random things like mixing cement or washing the solar panels. When there's too much rain coming off the rook, and the tanks are full, we route the rest into the ground (literally down the well). Our domestic water consumption has dropped around 50%. Although we don't filter it, it "sits" in a tank for several days before being used (and we draw from not-the-bottom) so its pretty clean when we use it. Obviously not drinkable though.
effluvium 2y ago
Wow. You make a great point. You got me thinking about those rainwater capture systems for downspouts now. Rainwater hits asphalt shingles and picks up a bunch of hydrocarbons, and then someone uses the contaminated water to grow their tomatoes.
- bamboozled 2y ago
  This is shit is going into every water table we have though, all the run off from the roads, tarmacs, roofs, fake grasses, it’s all contaminating the world.
- pvaldes 2y ago
  If you grow vegetables in an urban environment the rain will bring a lot of undesired things in any case. Is unavoidable. Regulations (and the complicated plant metabolism) can fix that Apart of that, is not required to wash the tomatoes directly with the grey water. Just soak the roots and the organism will take care directly of the recycling and classification of water and other stuff. Everything nasty stored in roots, stems or leaves is harmless and equivalent as cleaning it from the environment for free. Only fruits will count. Cells are good at keeping out what they don't like; and store the things that they like.
  - RetroTechie 2y ago
    > If you grow vegetables in an urban environment the rain will bring a lot of undesired things in any case. Apart from areas with heavy air pollution, rainwater as it falls from the sky is generally clean enough that it's safe to drink. Almost anywhere on the planet. But! As soon as it hits a surface, it's easily contaminated with anything & everything: bird droppings, lead (used as an additive to zinc) from galvanized corrugated steel, etc etc. Basically: in most places, rainwater is as clean as the collection surface / piping / storage equipment used.
- schiffern 2y ago
  The standard recommendation is to avoid shingle roofs for rainwater collection, and use a non-toxic metal or tile roof instead. Ignore the advice saying plant cells or fruiting bodies can "keep out" pollutants; this isn't true across all classes of pollutants, so best to err on the safe side.

Addressed in TFA: > Green roofs might help soak up some rainwater to hydrate the plants up there, but blue-green roofs go a step further with additional infrastructure that gathers up the liquid, stores it, and dispenses it to the building’s residents for watering plants and flushing toilets.

bruce511 2y ago
Humans are good at adapting, so when events like droughts or floods come along, we look at ways to adapt to that. Some years ago we had a drought here. Now lots of residential houses have water tanks collecting (at a minimum) rain water. Some are supplemented by ground water, via well points etc. Once you have this, this water is useful in lots of cases. We use it for toilets, watering plants, washing outside spaces and cars, top up the pool, plus other random things like mixing cement or washing the solar panels. When there's too much rain coming off the rook, and the tanks are full, we route the rest into the ground (literally down the well). Our domestic water consumption has dropped around 50%. Although we don't filter it, it "sits" in a tank for several days before being used (and we draw from not-the-bottom) so its pretty clean when we use it. Obviously not drinkable though.

effluvium 2y ago

Wow. You make a great point. You got me thinking about those rainwater capture systems for downspouts now. Rainwater hits asphalt shingles and picks up a bunch of hydrocarbons, and then someone uses the contaminated water to grow their tomatoes.

bamboozled 2y ago
This is shit is going into every water table we have though, all the run off from the roads, tarmacs, roofs, fake grasses, it’s all contaminating the world.
pvaldes 2y ago
If you grow vegetables in an urban environment the rain will bring a lot of undesired things in any case. Is unavoidable. Regulations (and the complicated plant metabolism) can fix that Apart of that, is not required to wash the tomatoes directly with the grey water. Just soak the roots and the organism will take care directly of the recycling and classification of water and other stuff. Everything nasty stored in roots, stems or leaves is harmless and equivalent as cleaning it from the environment for free. Only fruits will count. Cells are good at keeping out what they don't like; and store the things that they like.
- RetroTechie 2y ago
  > If you grow vegetables in an urban environment the rain will bring a lot of undesired things in any case. Apart from areas with heavy air pollution, rainwater as it falls from the sky is generally clean enough that it's safe to drink. Almost anywhere on the planet. But! As soon as it hits a surface, it's easily contaminated with anything & everything: bird droppings, lead (used as an additive to zinc) from galvanized corrugated steel, etc etc. Basically: in most places, rainwater is as clean as the collection surface / piping / storage equipment used.
schiffern 2y ago
The standard recommendation is to avoid shingle roofs for rainwater collection, and use a non-toxic metal or tile roof instead. Ignore the advice saying plant cells or fruiting bodies can "keep out" pollutants; this isn't true across all classes of pollutants, so best to err on the safe side.