How to Help
Be Water Wise
There are many ways to be water wise in your home, garden, and lawn.

• Enter our Water Footprint Contest
• Calculating your water use
• Saving Water Saves Money
• Water the Ipswich, Not Your Lawn: Tips for River-Friendly Landscaping
• What a Difference Fixtures Can Make: Tips to Save Water at Home
  
• All Drains Lead to the Ipswich River: Tips for Proper Waste Disposal
  
• Harvest the Rain: Rain Barrels for Your Garden

Do You Know Your Water Footprint?
Enter our Contest now! Deadline extended to July 1!

We challenge you to use water as efficiently as you can -
you’ll save money, help keep the Ipswich River flowing,
protect wildlife, and ensure that there is enough clean water for all.

Click here for contest directions and details. (pdf)

Tips for saving water and reducing your water footprint:

Figure out your water use:
1. Look at your water bill and calculate your per person water use. Click here for directions on understanding your water bill and calculating water use. (pdf)

2. Look at your water meter and see your water use as it happens.Your meter can tell you how much water you are using per day, week, month and year. You can monitor your meter yourself and check your figures against your water bill to verify the accuracy of your water bill.
 
How To Find Your Water Meter
Your water meter is inside a rectangular concrete box, flush with the ground, and is usually located near the roadway or sidewalk.

Use water more efficiently:
Eliminate leaks! Leaks can waste a surprisingly high amount of H2O!
15-minute, surefire way to find out if you've got a leak:
Turn off all the water inside and outside your house, then look for your water meter. If the meter's hand is moving, you've got a leak. If it's not moving, note the position of the meter and recheck it in 10 minutes. If it moved, you've got a slow leak.
For toilets:
If your toilet sounds like it's running long after you flush or you have to jiggle the handle to get it to stop, it's probably wasting water.
The dye test: Flush the toilet, then add a teaspoon of food coloring to the tank - don't flush it. After 15 minutes, check the bowl. If you can see any dye, your toilet's leaking.

Rebates for water savings:
- Ipswich residents are eligible for rebates on Energy Star appliances that save water and energy.
- Middleton residents can have a free water audit conducted in their home.
- North Reading has an interactive water bill calculator here.
- North Reading offers discounted rain barrels for residents.

Saving Water Saves Money

IRWA is a WaterSense™ Partner, joining with the US Environmental Protection Agency to promote water efficiency. For more information about this program, see EPA’s WaterSense website at www.epa.gov/watersense.

SAVING WATER SAVES ENERGY…
Many of us are concerned about the impacts of our energy use on the environment and its relationship to global warming. Now is the time to shine a spotlight on the relationship between water use and energy use, because saving water saves energy. This is true not only in your home or business, but for municipal water suppliers – because the energy to pump, treat and transport water and wastewater is often one of the highest energy costs in a municipal budget. 

Here are some facts from EPA’s WaterSense website:  If one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That is equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year.

• If 1 percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a high-efficiency toilet (HET), the country would save more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply more than 43,000 households electricity for one month.
• If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year!
• American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year.
• Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.1

…and SAVING ENERGY SAVES WATER

Power generation is one of the largest water users in the nation. Water is used in almost every aspect of energy production. In a 2006 report, the Department of Energy estimated that “in calendar year 2000, thermoelectric power generation accounted for 39% of all freshwater withdrawals in the U.S., roughly equivalent to water withdrawals for irrigated agriculture.” The report also states that consumption of water for electrical energy production could more than double by 2030 if current trends persist, equaling the United States' entire domestic water consumption in 1995!”  Source: River Network; see http://rivernetwork.org/rn/climate/water

Water the Ipswich, Not Your Lawn: Tips for River-Friendly Landscaping

Visit Greenscapes.org for many tips on how to use less water and chemicals and maintain your beautiful landscape.

Tip #1 - Water Your Lawn Wisely or Not at All

Summer water use is double or triple winter water use in most of the communities that depend on the Ipswich River for their water supplies. Most of that increase is due to lawn watering. 80% of the water applied to lawns by irrigation systems is lost to evaporation or runoff, and doesn't replenish ground water. Results from several studies show that the water used for lawn watering alone would be enough solve all of the Ipswich River's critical flow problems if only it stayed in the river.

You don't have to water your lawn at all! Remember - grass naturally goes yellow and dormant in the hot summer months. It isn't dead, it's just hibernating! Your lawn will come back and green up in the fall.

Tip #2 - Keep your grass at least 3" tall

By mowing your lawn at a 3 inches, you'll allow it to develop a larger root system that requires less water to stay healthy. A lawn mowed at a higher setting also shades out weed seedlings. All it takes is raising your lawn mower blades.

Tip #3 - Reduce the size of your lawn

Photo credit: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Connecticut Office.

Native landscapes are beautiful, sophisticated, and add value to your home. They also provide habitat for wildlife and eliminate the need for artificial chemical and water applications. How do they accomplish all this? By being well suited to their environment. Because they are native to our beautiful region, they don't need the intensive watering that non-native plants do; they are naturally adjusted to our climate. And that makes them more pest-resistant as well, eliminating the need for damaging herbicide and pesticide applications. Visit Greenscapes.org for more information on native plants.

For more information on locating a native landscape designer, visit the Ecological Landscaping Association.

Back to Top of Page

What a Difference Fixtures Can Make: Tips to Save Water at Home

Fix Leaks

Leaky fixtures like toilets and faucets can lose up to 50 gallons of water per day. Given that its estimated that 4 out of 5 toilets over 2 years old leak, that a lot of water wasted! So fix your leaks! How?

• For toilets, put a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank - do not flush. If color appears in the bowl within 10-15 minutes, you have a leak. To repair it the flush valve (the "flapper") or the valve seat may need cleaning or replacement. Parts are inexpensive and easy to install.
• You know when facets and showers are leaking because they tell you with their drips. Worn-out washers - the cause of most dripping faucets and showerheads - cost pennies to replace and are easily installed.
• Check under sinks, behind your washing machine and around basement plubming for suspicious look wet areas. Leaky pipes not only waste water, they can also damage the structure of your house.

Install Water Saving Fixtures

Gone are the days of low flow toilets that won't flush, and low flow shower heads that can't get the shampoo out of your hair. Time and mechanical improvements are made water efficient fixtures as effective or better than their traditional counterparts. And the water they save pays for them!

• If you have a pre-1980 toilet then installing a low flow toilet will save 3.4 to 5.4 gallons per flush. If your toilet is newer than that, you will save about 2 gallons per flush. You can also buy toilet retrofit kits at a hardware store.
• Hold a bucket underneath your showerhead for 20 seconds, being sure to catch all of the water that comes out. If more than one gallon accumulates in that time, you need a water efficient showerhead! You can save up to 4 gallons per minute of your shower!
• Low-flow faucet aerators mix air with tap water to reduce the flow to 1.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute. Faucets without aerators use about 3 to 7 gallons per minute. Aerators are inexpensive and easy to install.
• Finally, while they are more expensive investments, energy and water efficient dishwashers and washing machines pay for themselves. Newer dishwasher models can use as little at 7 gallons of water per load, as compared with older models that use about 12 gallons per load. Replacing your washing machine can save up to 13 gallons per load. That's a lot of money and water!

Back to Top of Page

All Drains Lead to the Ipswich River: Tips for Proper Waste Disposal

You can minimize waste that flows to the Ipswich River by taking the following steps:

1. Use pesticides and fertilizers sparingly or never on your lawn. Compost organic waste and use the compost as fertilizer.
2. Properly dispose of toxic substances like paint and paint thinners, automotive fluids, and cleaning products. Take toxic wastes to appropriate collection sites. To find a recycling or waste disposal center near you, visit Earth 911.
3. Maintain your septic system regularly, with frequent pumping and proper leaching field maintenance.
4. Pick up after Rover and properly dispose of pet waste. Don’t throw it down a storm drain.
5. Use pump-out facilities for your boat and keep it well-maintained.
6. Don’t litter, and participate in river cleanups.

Back to Top of Page

Harvest the Rain: Rain Barrels for Your Garden

Rain barrels and cisterns capture and store stormwater runoff from roofs and other impervious surfaces.

Water stored in a rain barrel can be used to meet household garden and lawn watering needs. Larger cisterns can store water for non-potable uses on a larger scale, such as flushing toilets or washing cars. We use both a rain barrel and cistern system for watering at Riverbend.

Using rain barrels and cisterns can help to reduce stormwater runoff and reduce demand on the municipal water system during periods of water stress.

Several towns in the Ipswich River Watershed have offered rebates for the purchase of rain barrels. Check with your Town for details, or check www.Greenscapes.org for special offers. Local rain barrel companies include:

• The New England Rain Barrel Company
  
• Sky Juice New England
• The Great American Rain Barrel Company
  
• Aaron's Rain Barrels

Back to Top of Page