The Town of Shrewsbury has teamed up with The New England Rain Barrel Company to offer discounted rain barrels to residents. Rain barrels help conserve water and save money, and can be used for outdoor watering or car washing.

Rain barrels are available to Shrewsbury residents at the discounted price of $66.50 (regular retail price $89). The Town has also been awarded a grant from the MassDEP that provides an additional $10 discount for the first 40 barrels purchased (grant price $56.50 - limit one grant per household).

New England Rain Barrels are made from recycled 55 gallon food-grade plastic drums and come equipped with a 5 ft. hose and shutoff valve.

Orders must be placed directly with New England Rain Barrel by Friday, June 13th.  Pick-up date is Wednesday, June 18th from 3 to 6 PM at the Shrewsbury Town Hall. 

Rain Barrel Fast Facts
Conserve water, save money, and reduce your impact on the local environment.

• Collection of rooftop runoff provides an ample supply of free “soft water” containing no chlorine, lime or calcium.
• Rain water is ideal for biodynamic and organic vegetable gardens, planter beds, indoor plants, automobile washing and cleaning windows.
• Rain barrels reduce demand for tap water and save money by lowering quarterly water bills. 
• Using stored rain water instead of treated tap water from a garden hose helps the Town conserve electricity that would have been used during the drinking water treatment process.
• Rain water diversion decreases the burden on municipal drainage systems during storms. 
• Rain barrels prevent gutter runoff from washing chemicals and contaminates from lawns and driveways into the storm sewer system.  This helps improve the quality of local streams, rivers, lakes and ponds. 
• Rain barrels keep gardens green and lush all summer long... even when the Town implements mandatory outdoor water use restrictions.  
• Just 1/4" of rain on an average size roof will fill a 55 gallon New England rain barrel.

Call 1-877-977-3135 to place your order with The New England Rain Barrel Company or visit www.nerainbarrel.com.
The Water Dept. will not take rain barrel orders!

Indoor and outdoor water conservation kits are now on sale at the Water Department at the Shrewsbury Town Hall for $3.00 per kit.

The cost of these kits is subsidized by the Shrewsbury Water Conservation Project, and all money taken in from the sale of these kits goes back into the fund to continue the program.

The indoor water conservation kit pictured at right includes a low-flow shower head, a kitchen sink aerator, 2 bathroom sink aerators, a package of leak detection dye tablets, a toilet water displacement bag, a toilet fill cycle diverter, a roll of Teflon tape, a shower flow meter, and a drip gauge.

The outdoor water conservation kit pictured at left includes two hose connectors to reseal and eliminate leaks on garden hoses, a low-flow multi-position garden nozzle, and a rain gauge. This kit helps reduce water consumption by repairing leaking hose couplings, washers, and nozzle, plus the rain gauge helps avoid over-watering.

These conservation kits are for Shrewsbury residents ONLY and can be purchased at the Water Department during regular business hours.

To encourage responsible use of in-ground lawn sprinklers, the Town of Shrewsbury will begin offering free sprinkler rain sensors to residents using automatic sprinkler systems.

The free rain sensors are available from the Water Dept.

If you are interested in a rain sensor gauge for your automatic lawn sprinkler system, please come to the Water Department office at Shrewsbury Town Hall during regular business hours (8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F) after April 1.

For more information, visit www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/water or call 508-841-8506. Shrewsbury residents ONLY. Quantities are limited.

Rain Sensor Gauge Fast Facts

• A rain sensor will shut off your lawn sprinkler system when rainfall is detected to help conserve water and save money.
  
  
• For maximum benefit, rain sensors must be mounted where normal rainfall occurs.
  
  
• Shrewsbury’s free rain sensors use special fabric discs to collect rain. These discs expand when wet and press a micro-switch shutting off your sprinkler system.
  
  
• The fabric discs dry at approximately the same rate as soil, so the system will be active only when necessary.
  

In September 2006 the Town of Shrewsbury applied for a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for water conservation materials. We were awarded 100 $10 rain barrel discounts to be used as part of our rain barrel program, and 100 water conservation devices to be distributed to Shrewsbury residents.

The following is a report detailing the success of our programs as well as comments directly from our residents about the conservation devices.

• View the Complete 2007 DEP Water Conservation Report

Sincerely,
Jackie Pratt
Shrewsbury Water Conservation Project Coordinator