Skip to content

What is a Rain Barrel?

Rain barrels collect and store rainwater from rooftops to use later for watering trees, plants and gardens. Water collected in a rain barrel would normally drain off your roof and become stormwater runoff. They’re inexpensive and easy to build and install. Rain barrels can also be arranged to slowly release the collected rainfall to areas that can soak up the water, reducing stormwater runoff and protecting water quality.  For more information, check out our fact sheet and rain barrel brochure below.

Rain Barrel fact sheet:

Rain Harvesting

 

Rain Barrel brochure:

Building A Rain Barrel

 

Omaha Rain Barrel Program

In 2010 and 2012 the Omaha Stormwater Program created the Omaha Rain Barrel Program which gave away food grade barrels that were donated by Coke-a-Cola to create rain barrels.  An informative brochure was created to support citizen with building their rain barrels.  The brochure includes a list of parts and a step-by-step instruction guide. Unfortunately, the donation of the barrels ceased after 2012, and we now focus on educating interested citizens and organizations about rain barrels and how to create one. 

Funded with a grant from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality

Back To Top