SAN DIEGO–The County of San Diego is offering discounted priced rain barrels to all San Diego county residents.
This month, local residents can pick up a discounted top-of-the-line rain barrel for $90 — and potentially as little as $25 — thanks to the County of San Diego’s Watershed Protection Program, the nonprofit Solana Center, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Residents can order and pay for an Ivy rain barrel online at the Solana Center’s website and choose to pick it up at one of two events: Saturday, Jan. 30 in Bonita, or Saturday, Feb. 6 in Lakeside. COVID-19 prevention measures will be in place.
The Metropolitan Water District will offer a $35 rebate off $90, available to residents who get their water from the San Diego County Water Authority or its participating member agencies.
Also, the County of San Diego is giving out its own $30 discounts on the first 200 rain barrels ordered by residents who live in the unincorporated county, which could lower the total cost to $25.
Order by Jan. 24 to pick up the rain barrels in Bonita from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Sweetwater Community Garden at 5354 Sweetwater Road. Order by Jan. 31 and pick up the rain barrel in Lakeside between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday, Feb. 6 at the Lakeside Community Center at 9841 Vine Street.
Rain barrels are available for pickup from noon to 5 p.m. on Thursdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at the Solana Center’s Encinitas offices at 137 North El Camino Real.
Rain barrels will not be shipped. To protect everyone against COVID-19, customers must wear masks and remain in their cars. Workers at the Bonita and Lakeside events will also wear masks and load rain barrels into people’s trunks or back seats. There will also be a staging area separated from the pickup spot for customers who need to adjust tie-downs or take other measures to secure rain barrels. A fuller explanation of the pickup process is located on the Solana Center’s webpage.
Having a rain barrel can harvest rain right off a homeowner’s roof and use it to keep their gardens or lawns green the old-fashioned way, and can lower water costs.
The Ivy Rain Barrels have a locking, child-proof lid, are made of 100% recycled material, have overflow ports, protective screening to keep mosquitoes out, a ¾-inch ball valve to connect to your garden hose or to another barrel, and they don’t need pumps because they use gravity to dispense their collected rainwater.
