Rainwater from roof

Hi Scott,
Do you feel that drinking water from rooves is safe? I'm also interested in if we can put it on edibles. I'm also interested in the difference between cedar, slate, composition, clay and metal.
Thanks
John S
PDX OR

There are many people who collect rainwater for drinking water. I live on an island, and while we seem to have lots of water, smaller islands nearby are always short of water. There is a long history of collecting rainwater to drink.

Of course, lots of people collect rainwater for shampooing the hair, because it is soft, and when collected properly, clean.

Not all roof materials are suitable to collect drinking water. My favourite roofing anyway is metal roofing.

To keep cisterns clean, the first rainfall in a long time is allowed to rinse off the roof and discarded. Only when the rainwater is running clear will a valve be opened to lead to the water tank or cistern. It's all worked out...

Modern islanders use food grade tanks and pressure tanks to provide "nearly normal" service.

Cheers,

Scotty

I use rainwater runoff from my roof to fill two small ponds in my front yard. The goldfish, tadpoles, frogs, dogs, plants,etc. all seem to be fine.


I do have a relatively older shingle roof though, I would be concerned if it were newer and possibly toxic tar/oil byproducts might leach out.
(I don't drink the water myself in any case)

As for neutral natural materials like clay/cedar- don't picture any problem with that. Metal painted roofs should be pretty safe.

If there is any concern that there may be anything leaching out, running the water through some natural filtering materials (sand/charcoal) and/or
through open streams/pools could help with that.