Joel Cantu says:

One area that I believe the Houston area needs to focus on is water quality and conservation. Specially in the garden and landscape area. People need to understand that all the garbage, pesticides and fertilizers that are on our lawns, sidewalks and streets ends up washing out into our lakes, bayous and eventually Galveston. Installing a rain barrel is good for the environment because it reduces the amount of run-off from our yards and because plants prefer rain water to chlorinated tap water.