UGA has decreased its water usage by 28 percent over the past year— saving the university more than $250,000 through conservation and cost-cutting measures and the enthusiastic cooperation of faculty, staff and students.
Less than 12 months after a special water conservation task force called for “serious water-saving measures” to combat a severe drought, UGA has cut water usage by 90 million gallons, according to new data from the Physical Plant Division, which is primarily responsible for water conservation efforts.
Usage is down in virtually every area of campus operations but particularly in research functions where consumption has dropped by one-third, or 52 million gallons.
The task force, composed of faculty, staff, students and administrators, was created in October 2007 as Athens withered under one of the worst droughts in recent history. Six weeks later the group issued a report calling on UGA, Clarke County’s largest water user at 564 million gallons annual consumption, to reduce short-term use by as much as
5 percent without seriously harming teaching and research. The report also recommended developing strategies for long-range conservation, and steps to increase UGA’s current and future water supply.
Since last November, water usage for instructional purposes is down from 72 million gallons to
57 million and usage in residence halls is down from 64 million gallons to about 56 million, according to the physical plant data.
Usage for irrigation purposes fell from 13 million gallons to zero as physical plant stopped almost all outdoor irrigation and researchers in greenhouses ceased automated watering, lowering greenhouse water usage by
6.7 million gallons.
But the greatest savings are in research functions, which consumed 31 percent of campus water, the highest at the university. Research usage plummeted from more than
160 million gallons to about 110 million gallons.
UGA’s total 28 percent reduction far exceeds Gov. Sonny Perdue’s order last October that state-owned facilities cut water use by
10-15 percent, and also surpasses Clarke County’s 20 percent reduction goal.
Physical plant officials attribute the success mainly to aggressive implementation of water-saving measures throughout campus and widespread support for the “Every Drop Counts” public awareness campaign.
“The work (of the task force) created tremendous public awareness of the critical drought situation and served as an impetus for personal water conservation activities on the campus,” said Ralph Johnson, associate vice president for the physical plant. “The savings were achieved through the collective efforts of faculty, staff and students as well as by equipment upgrades and retrofits accomplished by the physical plant.”
Johnson said that even before the task force report was finalized, physical plant moved several water-saving projects that had been on the “back burner” to the top of the priority list.
One project involved changing the way tap water is used to cool refrigeration compressors and other equipment in research labs in the Miller Plant Sciences Building and the biological sciences building. The change, which reconfigured the use of inexpensive but inefficient devices called “once-through” cooling units, led to an average savings of
1.25 million gallons of water a month in the plant sciences building alone.
Although drought conditions have eased a bit over the last year, water conservation is still essential, according to Johnson.
“The key issue going forward is to continue making water efficiency improvements even during times of abundant water supply, which we hope will return soon,” he said. “In this way, UGA will be much better when—not if—the next drought occurs.” |
