Merrimack Valley

Two state grants to help North Andover become greener

By J.J. Huggins
Staff writer
Published: February 21, 2008

NORTH ANDOVER — One grant is meant to help people conserve water, another is to help them breathe easier.

Residents will have the opportunity to get a $10 discount on rain barrels for their yard because of money from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

North Andover received $500 to use to give 50 residents a $10 discount on rain barrels ordered from New England Rain Barrel Co. through April 14. With the discount, the barrels will cost the first 50 people who order them $56.50 each, according to Tina Klein, chairwoman of the North Andover Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

People can use the 55-gallon barrels made of recycled plastic to collect rainwater, and then use that water for their gardens or flowers.

"This is a way to collect it and reuse it, and not have to use it from the normal town source," said DEP spokesman Edmund Coletta.

The barrels have screens to keep insects and debris out, and two brass spigots — one to allow the person to connect a hose for watering and one for overflow. People can connect a hose to the overflow spigot to redirect the water away from their homes. The barrel also comes with a 5-foot hose with a shutoff valve.

In exchange for the grant, the town has to get feedback from at least 10 percent of those who buy the barrels. Town officials have to submit the results of the survey by December 2008, Coletta said.

DEP also has given North Andover, Bernardston and Wakefield $5,135 in grants to install equipment to reduce air pollution coming from a front-end loader in each of those communities.

A company will install a diesel oxidation catalyst on the front-end loaders, and the equipment will reduce fine particulate matter — a pollutant that has been implicated in the state's rising asthma rates and is considered a probable carcinogen, a press release said.

The equipment can reduce fine particulate matter by 25 percent, hydrocarbons by 60 percent and carbon monoxide by 60 percent.

"These grants will assist our municipal partners in their efforts to clean the air in their communities," DEP Commissioner Laurie Burt said in the press release.

Want a rain barrel?

To order a rain barrel, call The New England Rain Barrel Co. at 978-977-3135, or order them at www.nerainbarrel.com. The company is scheduled to deliver the barrels on Saturday, April 19, at the North Andover Public Works Building, 384 Osgood St., from 9 a.m. to noon.