diff --git a/lib/configuration.js b/lib/configuration.js
index d154c038bcd0ae010cd856ce1039d17dc4173045..4fb0d277b3837cd2333e443d7a7f8cbcf1983add 100644
--- a/lib/configuration.js
+++ b/lib/configuration.js
@@ -218,6 +218,11 @@ if (process.env['VAR_PATH']) {
   g_config.var_path = process.env['VAR_PATH'];
 }
 
+// allow statsd to be enabled from the environment
+if (process.env['ENABLE_STATSD']) {
+  g_config.statsd = { enabled: true };
+}
+
 // what host/port shall we bind to?
 g_config.bind_to = {
   host: process.env['IP_ADDRESS'] || process.env['HOST'] || "127.0.0.1",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e5c68016807dd49932f83c0aba6d352d50acf4ed..044b2952bb54a7920d32a12e25c4f759b3446cf4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
     , "postprocess": "0.0.3"
     , "urlparse": "0.0.1"
     , "uglifycss": "0.0.4"
-    , "node-statsd": "https://github.com/mojodna/node-statsd/tarball/2584c08fad"
+    , "node-statsd": "https://github.com/lloyd/node-statsd/tarball/085b93"
     , "connect-logger-statsd": "0.0.1"
     , "semver": "1.0.12"
     , "compute-cluster": "0.0.4"