Rolling out barrels for a better environment

BEREA - Do you ever feel like the water company has you over a barrel?

And the power company. And the gas company. Not to mention all the oil companies.

It’s hurting your wallet, and perhaps your conscience, as we approach the 38th Earth Day on April 22. Does our modern lifestyle make you wonder what kind of world we’re leaving for our grandchildren, and their grandchildren?

There’s something simple you can do to save money and help the environment: Get a rain barrel.

If you want a special rain barrel, there will be 68 of them, painted by professional and amateur artists from throughout Central Kentucky, up for auction April 26 at the Berea Rain Barrel Festival. You also can buy an unpainted plastic rain barrel for $55.

“The most amazing thing is the diversity of people who have been captured by this festival,” said Cheyenne Olson, one of the organizers.

Twice as many artists and community groups as she expected asked to paint barrels. The festival will include music, environmental education programs, and free hamburgers, veggie burgers and cake.

A rain barrel is fitted with a screened hole on top where the gutter pipe drains in, an overflow hose, and a spigot at the bottom. It catches water coming off your roof, providing a free source for outdoor watering and other uses.

A rain barrel can save you money and allow you to ignore watering restrictions during a drought. It also reduces storm runoff and lessens the need for costly water supply and treatment facilities as the region’s population grows.

Let’s have a festival

The citizens group Sustainable Berea has for some time been converting recycled food-grade plastic barrels and wooden bourbon barrels into rain barrels and selling them. The barrels were becoming so popular that Sustainable Berea decided to throw a festival to help community groups raise money. It also hopes to bank perhaps $5,000 for small environmental sustainability project grants around Berea.

“It really fits the culture of Berea,” said Dave Pritchard, an executive with Novelis, which operates a large aluminum recycling plant in Berea and is the festival’s biggest corporate sponsor.

Social responsibility has always been a big part of life in the southern Madison County town, home to Berea College and famous for its artists and craftsmen.

Mayor Steve Connelly supports the festival for some very practical reasons. Berea has had droughts in 18 of the past 77 years, and its population has grown more than 30 percent since 2000. He figures that an inch of rain produces 275 million gallons of water in Berea. The more of it that can be captured and reused, the less demand there will be for costly expansion of the city reservoirs.

“Rain barrels are inexpensive and easy to install,” Connelly said at a festival kickoff event Monday. “My family has two at our house.”

Beyond rain barrels

For some members of Sustainable Berea, rain barrels are just the beginning.

Home energy consumption is a big concern. Buildings use 40 percent of the nation’s energy - even more than transportation does, said Richard Olson, director of Berea College’s Sustainability and Environmental Studies program.

“If we designed our buildings more efficiently, we could really cut back on that, and save money, too,” he said.

In addition to rain barrels, the Olsons practice what they preach by using roof-mounted solar panels to heat their water and provide much of their home’s electricity. On sunny days, they sell electricity back to the local power company, which is required by state law to buy it. Olson said his total monthly utility bill, water included, rarely exceeds $20.

He figures his $4,000 solar water-heating system will pay for itself in about eight years. But it will take much longer for his $15,000 solar power-generating system to break even.

Still, it helps him sleep better. He punches a button on a meter and sees that his system has produced 4,067 kilowatt-hours of electricity in the past two years.

“That means about two tons of coal hasn’t been burned because we had this system,” Olson said. “Coal companies aren’t blowing up those mountains for fun. They’re doing it because we’re paying them to.”

Mark Jeantheau, who moved to Berea from suburban Washington, D.C., two years ago, recently finished building an energy-efficient home. He collects rainwater for his garden in four 2,000-gallon underground cisterns, and his home incorporates passive energy technologies such as south-facing windows and thermal tile.

He also has a power-generating system fed by two large solar collectors in his yard. Over the course of a year, the system will provide all the power his home will use.

Most people won’t want to go that far. But anyone can get a rain barrel.

Richard Olson shows the solar panels on his house that generate electricity, left, and heat water, right.

Photos above: Two of the rain barrels that will be auctioned at the festival. Berea Mayor Steve Connelly announced plans for the festival Monday while leaning on painted rain barrels. Photos/Tom Eblen

If You Go

Berea Rain Barrel Festival

When: April 26, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Memorial Park, corner of Jefferson and Broadway, Berea

Details: Silent and live auction of 68 rain barrels decorated by Central Kentucky artists and community groups. Free hamburgers (grass-fed beef), veggie burgers and cake.

Why: To raise money for community groups and small-scale water sustainability projects around Berea.

Sponsors: Sustainable Berea, Novelis, People’s Bank, Delta Gas, City of Berea, Berea College, Community Trust Bank, G and J Pepsi Lexington, Berea Tourism, Woodford Reserve, Wal-Mart, Tokico.

More information: www.sustainableberea.org

UPDATE, Monday, April 28: Cheyenne Olson of Sustainable Berea reports that the Rain Barrel Festival was a smashing success. About 2,500 people attended and all 64 of the painted barrels put up for auction sold, with a top price of $300. Sustainable Berea also sold 72 unpainted plastic rain barrels and took the names of 117 more people who want to buy them when they’re available. While the auction was primarily a fundraiser for the organizations that painted the barrels, Olson expects Sustainable Berea to clear the $5,000 it was hoping to make. That money will be used to support environmental sustainability projects in and around the southern Madison County town. Perhaps the highlight of the day, she said, were the 1,000 cupcakes made by Berea College employee Linda Cope and served out of a rain barrel. For more information about rain barrels or Sustainable Berea, email Olson at: info@sustainableberea.org.