BAY AREA MAN AWASH IN FREE RESOURCE - RAINWATER.

Byline: Joan Jackson Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Phillip Datillo is one man you'll never catch chanting ``rain, rain, go away.'' He's happy when it pours like it has this week, knowing it's another gallon or two for his personal reservoir of rainwater that will be welcome when the weather turns warm.

In an extraordinary recycling project, Datillo, 85, collects rainwater, bottles it in one-gallon containers and uses it through the summer to water the flowers, trees and shrubs in San Jose.

``I don't lose a drop,'' he proudly says.

The lesson to learn from Datillo: Waste not, want not.

``I have downspouts working to my advantage, and they drain into a 40-gallon barrel. I dip the gallon jugs into the barrel, fill them up, put the caps on them and line them up in the back yard. I must have 150 gallons all lined up, and the barrel is filling up again,'' he says.

``It's not that I'm cheap,'' Datillo says. ``I enjoy doing this.''

Water recycling is a practice that flourished during the drought years, when every little drop really did count. And while that drought is just a bad memory, water-conscious gardeners like Datillo look at rain rushing down the gutters into the storm drains and wonder, why waste it?

Saving rainwater makes good sense. It's free. It's pure. It's there for the taking. You can use it to water your houseplants, refill outdoor ponds or wash your car.

A system to save water can be elaborate or simple, but the principle is the same: catch it and cover it.

Water left in open barrels in the sun will turn slimy with algae. Such water won't hurt the plants, but the smell might turn you off. Worse, open water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Datillo uses one-gallon plastic milk bottles or water bottles with caps to hold his water. This is a simple, inexpensive way to store the water (and recycle your milk bottles). The important part is the cap - the bottles must be capped to keep the water fresh.

Some plants actually grow better with rainwater than with tap water. If a home has a water softener system, for instance, the salt in the water softener can harm or even kill sensitive plants. Orchids and cactuses particularly enjoy fresh rainwater, compared to unfiltered tap water.

Here are some tips to start your own water collecting system from Datillo:

Leave only one downspout open. Plug up the others. This allows all the rainwater to drain to one source.

A 40-gallon plastic barrel is a good catch-all beneath the drain. Datillo has three such barrels, and when one fills up, he puts a lid on it and directs the draining water to the next one. Plastic trash cans with lids are inexpensive and work perfectly.

As the barrel fills up, get the water into capped one-gallon jugs as soon as possible. Gathered this way, the water will last through summer for use in irrigation.

Experts with the San Jose Environmental Services Department recommend against collecting water from the first rain of the season as gutters may have collected bird droppings and other pollutants which will wash in with the first rain. If you want to collect from downspouts, they suggest you let the first rain ``flush through'' and then start collecting.

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Photo

Photo: Phillip Datillo fills jugs with rainwater he collected during recent storms. Datillo collects the rainwater in barrels, bottles it and waters his garden with it.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service