That “Other” Water Problem
posted by Sam Hummel on October 24th, 2007 Go to comments
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While rising sea levels are the talk of the international media, newspapers in my part of this country (NC) has been talking non-stop about falling water levels. Our reservoirs look like pastures cut by meandering streams (literally!) as one of the worst droughts on record persists. (Fortunately, we got some rainfall this morning, but it wasn’t nearly what we need.)
The New York Times wrote an exceptional article on this “other water problem” a few days ago, entitled “The Future is Drying Up.” I highly recommend it. Hopefully, it will find its way into some classrooms.
I know a number of campuses are investing in water conservation and rainfall harvesting. We have been working slowly on building a “Water” section in our Resource Center but this article and the current drought have, for me, kicked up a few notches the need to get that section on line. In order to do that faster, I’d like to ask for your help. If you have information about campuses that are doing great work around water conservation, watershed stewardship, or rainwater harvesting, please send it to resources@aashe.org. Copies of policies and other guiding documents are especially helpful.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:16 am
What sort of information do we need to compile? Our campus was designed in the late seventies (Carter admin.) which was the 1st push for energy conservation. The campus is designed to retain enough rain water to provide aprox. 80% of the irrigation water needed to keep the campus “green”.
Please let me know if you think we might qualify as a part of this study.
Thanks Cliff
October 29th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Thank you, Cliff. That’s exactly the kind of information we would like.
A great resource would be a slightly longer summary of Dallas County Community College’s experience with rainwater harvesting for irrigation and contact information for those who would like to learn more. I’m sure there will be people in the AASHE community that will want to visit or inquire about specific lessons-learned.
Thanks again for contributing!
-Sam
November 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Sorry for the late reply. I sorta stumbled onto your reply. How or where do you look to see if you have received an email reply from someone?
I talked with our facilities department about the use of the campus lake and this is what I found out.
We have 352 acres, and maintain approx. 87 acres. Of the 87 acres, we use the lake to irrigate approx. 85% of the 87 acres.
If there are guidelines for more specific information that might be required please let me know.
Thanks Cliff
November 13th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Thanks for following-up, Cliff. And great idea about the ability to receive e-mails when people reply to your comment. We’ve added that feature now.