Charles River Watershed Association Offers Opportunity to Go Green

By Liza Katz

Needham Patch, Thursday, July 22, 2010

If you're one of the growing number of people looking for ways to affect positive and necessary change on the environment, the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) has a solution.

CRWA has teamed up with the New England Rain Barrel Company to offer rain barrels and composters for home use at a reduced price. Both items have a valuable impact on our ecosystem, explains CRWA watershed scientist Julie Wood.

The rain barrel, a 55-gallon container that should be placed under the downspout to collect rainwater than runs off roofs, helps reduce the volume of storm water runoff. It is especially helpful during a summer like this one, when rain comes infrequently and in short spurts. Because the ground is too hard to soak up water, most of the rain that falls becomes runoff.

When rainwater lands on a roof, it travels down the spout and flows over the driveway or lawn. On the driveway, the water picks up pollutants such as metal from car tires and the contents of car exhaust that are left on the driveway every time a car starts. On the lawn, the water collects fertilizer and animal waste. These substances are then carried into the Charles River. By collecting stormwater runoff, rain barrels reduce the pollution that goes into the river.

Another benefit of rain barrels is that they reduce the use of drinking-quality water from the faucet. Drinking water is held to very high standards in order to be safe for humans to consume and it takes a lot of energy to get water to these standards. When people water their lawns and gardens from the faucet, they are putting demands on the town's water system and using water that could be helping to support the river.

"They're using drinking-quality water for a purpose that doesn't need water to be that clean," said Wood. "Rainwater is certainly adequate for this purpose."

The composter is a plastic ball-shaped structure for food and organic waste such as banana peels, cornhusks and coffee grounds. These materials can then be churned into a mulch by turning the composter on its side and rolling it around the lawn or driveway. When the products degrade into compost, a nutrient-rich soil is created, which can be recycled back into the lawn.

By reducing the amount of waste going into the garbage disposal, the composter also reduces the amount going into landfills. It additionally reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, which create nutrient pollution in water ecosystems and are a large-scale problem in the Charles.

"Nutrients are plant food, things they need to grow and survive," Wood said. "When it goes to the river it does same thing as in fertilizer and acts as plant food."

This process throws of the balance of the river ecosystem, allowing a disproportionate amount of plants to grow in the river. The excess plants prevent recreational activities like boating and swimming, block light for plants that grow at the bottom of the river, and—most seriously—die and sink to the bottom, where they decompose and take oxygen out of the water column. That oxygen is then not available for fish that need it to breathe, causing them to suffocate and die.

Rain barrels and composters can help mitigate these problems, and the first date for pickup will be next Wednesday, July 28, from 4- 7 p.m. at the Leo J. Martin Golf Course in Weston.

Interested parties can place their order directly with the New England Rain Barrel Company at least two days prior to the event. Other pickup dates and locations include August 4 in Ashland, August 11 in Franklin, and August 12 in Brookline. The cost is $79.95 for a barrel and $94.95 for a composter. For each item purchased, a $5 donation will be made to the CRWA.

More information can be found on the Charles River Watershed Association's website at http://www.crwa.org/events.html.

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