In recent years the Commission has offered customers discounted rain barrels through the Great American Rain Barrel Company. Unfortunately, due to supply chain issues the Commission has been unable to offer the program for the 2022 and 2023 gardening seasons. The Commission hopes to reinstitute the program in 2024! Please check back for updates.    

Residents still interested in purchasing a rain barrel for their home can find options at The Great American Rain Barrel Company or other home and garden suppliers

Why invest in a rain barrel?

Rain barrels capture rainwater from rooftops and help supplement summer outdoor water needs for:

• Gardens
• Lawn watering
• Washing cars
• Rain barrels also capture rainwater from storm drains, reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into waterways.
  

In New England, residential water usage can increase as much as 60% during the spring, summer and fall seasons due to outdoor watering needs such as watering gardens and lawns, filling pools, and washing cars. Rain barrels are a low-cost conservation alternative to supplement some of these seasonal water needs. In addition, rain barrels capture rain water that might otherwise have flowed into storm drains, reducing combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges into waterways.

The rain barrel works by capturing rain water from rooftops and collecting it in a 60-gallon barrel. The barrel is retro-fitted with a spigot for distributing water for outdoor uses such as watering the lawn and garden, or car washing.

Its only takes a ¼-inch of rainfall to fill the 60-gallon rain barrel when connected to a household gutter. In Massachusetts, it rains 130 days per year on average. If the rain barrel is used during half of those 130 days, then it will collect 3,900 gallons of water per year. That’s a savings of approximately $40 in tap water. For those who regularly water lawns and gardens, an investment in a rain barrel will easily pay for itself in two to three years.

For questions regarding the Commission’s rain barrel program please contact the Commission at 413-452-1300 or info@waterandsewer.org.