Facilities Management makes better use of water

April 26, 2011

President's Award for Sustainability: Facilities Management Central Plant Water Capture and Re-Use<separator></separator>Facilities Management Central Plant and Grounds Services teams received $5,000 seed money from University Sustainability Practices to design, fund, construct and then re-use Reverse Osmosis reject water from the Central Plant. The 13,500 gallons of reject water produced daily used to flow down the drain into the sewer system. The water is now piped to a holding tank and then used by Grounds Services on campus for power washing and cleaning streets and malls or pumped by the Central Plant up to the cooling towers for the campus chillers. During the first partial year of operation the departments saved 1,483,796 gallons of water that previously would have been purchased for those operations. Annual savings of more than 4 million gallons of water should now be realized. The entire cost of design and construction has been paid back in savings within the first ten months of operation. Team members:<separator></separator><div>• Ellen Newell, Facilities Management Administration.</div>• Bonny Bentzin, University Sustainability Practices.<separator></separator>• Stan Cloyd, Central Plant, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Nicholas Duncan, Grounds Services, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Chris Gahan, Central Plant, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Dan Osier, Central Plant, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Rick Pretzman, Facilities Management Administration.<separator></separator>• Joshua Reyes, Central Plant, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Fernando Reyna, Grounds Services, Facilities Management.<separator></separator>• Ted Woods, Central Plant, Facilities Management.