“Water covers approximately 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, but less than 1 percent of that is available for human use. The world must share this small amount for agricultural, domestic, commercial, industrial, and environmental needs. Across the globe, water consumption has tripled in the last 50 years. Managing the supply and availability of water is one of the most critical natural resource issues facing the United States and the world.
Homes use more than half of publicly supplied water in the United States, which is significantly more than is used by either business or industry. A family of four can use approximately 400 gallons of water every day. Those amounts used can increase depending on location; for example, the arid West has some of the highest per capita residential water use because of landscape irrigation. With water use in the United States increasing every year, many regions are starting to feel the pressure.
In the last five years, nearly every region of the country has experienced water shortages. At least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013, even under non-drought conditions. Of the estimated 29 billion gallons of water used daily by households in the United States, nearly 7 billion gallons, or 30 percent, is devoted to outdoor water use. In dry climates, a household’s outdoor water use can be as high as 70 percent…Up to 50 percent of water applied by irrigation systems is lost to wind, evaporation, and improper system design, installation, or maintenance” (source; also see the EPA listing of facts pertaining to California water use).
Mo Lovegreen, the Executive Officer for the Department of Geography and a leading proponent of sustainability on campus, was recently awarded $4,500 by the student-funded Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) in support of a “Smart Water Use” Project which was designed to update current sprinkler infrastructure on the West Campus grounds and to launch an educational campaign to inform campus staff, faculty, and students about the environmental impact of UCSB water usage. The project enlisted the aid of Manuel Herrera (Housing and Grounds Superintendent), Justin Prince (Lead Grounds Keeper, Housing and Residential Services), and several undergraduate volunteers, notably Cody Wilgus, Andrea Nunez, and Ryan Kelley.
UCSB spent $1.18 million on water in the 2009-2010 financial year, and much of that water was wasted due to the use of outdated sprinkler heads. Some of the old sprinkler heads are broken, leak water onto areas that do not need irrigation, spray in the wrong direction, are non-uniform, and lead to run-off or over-irrigation/under-irrigation in some areas. Justin Prince describes how the new sprinkler project unfolded:
“Last fall, the Grounds Department was asked to participate in a TGIF project to conserve water on campus. Mo Lovegreen approached us with an offer of using a grant to replace an area of traditional pop-up irrigation with the new standard in irrigation conservation, the MP Rotator nozzle. The Grounds Department reviewed some areas that we thought would benefit from the MP rotator replacements. We decided to go with West campus because the housing complex uses potable water which, due to its scarcity and cost, would benefit both the campus and the Santa Barbara County as a whole in conserving water.
The Grounds Department matched the grant in order to help complete the project, due to its size and the complexity of installing the new nozzles. Each sprinkler that was retrofitted was replaced with a pressure compensating body and check valve to ensure uniformity and control of the amount of water used; this was in addition to replacing the traditional nozzle with the MP rotator nozzle. The project was completed by Cody Wilgus who installed the new sprinkler bodies and nozzles, and the adjustments and redesigning of the water coverage was followed up by me. Initially there were three volunteers, but quickly the scope of work was left to Cody. He did an amazing job of changing out a total number of 577 sprinkler heads in four months’ time. The 577 heads represents about 2/3rds the total number of heads in operation at West Campus, with the intent that in the coming year the Grounds Department will convert all the heads to the MP Rotator. With that in mind, our goal is to conserve approximately 1/3rd the water that the traditional pop up nozzles used for irrigating the lawns at West Campus.”
The new sprinklers only have one moving part, requiring virtually no maintenance, and they only require simple arc and radii adjustments, without the need to change nozzles to maintain matched precipitation; they are durable and reliable and feature a “double pop” which keeps each sprinkler free from external debris. According to the Hunter Industries web site, “The revolutionary MP Rotator features a unique, multi-trajectory rotating stream delivery system that achieves water-conserving results. Rather than simply “spray” water onto landscapes, MP Rotators deliver multiple streams of water at a slow, steady rate. This slower application rate allows water to gently soak into the soil, and achieves an even distribution throughout the area being irrigated. This increased efficiency results in 30% less water use when compared to traditional sprays, and significantly reduces wasteful runoff. The MP Rotator can be installed onto any conventional spray head body or shrub adapter, transforming them into high uniformity, low precipitation rate sprinklers with matched precipitation at any arc and any radius.”
The Smart Water Use Project supports the mandate of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Water Committee whose main goal is to improve water efficiency on campus, and it provides a precedent for future work around campus in terms of water efficiency. Furthermore, the project advances the 20×2020 Water Conservation Plan for the State of California, which is a plan to achieve a 20% reduction in per capita water use statewide by 2020. The UCSB Smart Water Use Project began as a proposal in February 2011, installation of the new sprinkler heads was done in August 2011, and post inspections and audits of water and energy savings were completed in May 2012. The later analyses involved measurements of campus water meters before and after installation of the new sprinkler heads, and it is anticipated that there will also be a 30% reduction of energy used to migrate water around the West Campus. The project will have paid for itself in just over 3 years.
The UCSB Sustainability Change Agent Water Team is a Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee subcommittee for academic years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 whose goals include the following:
- Maintain campus water indicators
- Research and employ new water efficiency technologies
- Provide information about campus water use and its environmental impact to campus constituents – include ways to reduce water use
- Revisit water contracts to see where we can make improvements in the short and long-term
- Assist with water-related policy creation and implementation
- Update campus building standards to achieve all LEED points under the Water Efficiency category
- Measure existing water use and install additional meters
- Create a water management plan, including landscaping, building use, and water reuse
- Reduce potable water use and increase reclaimed water use by 15% by 2012
- Reduce potable water use and increase reclaimed water use by 25% by 2014
- Work with key campus groups to develop a campus-wide water management strategy
- Increase reclaimed water use in toilets
- Capture rainwater for reuse on campus
The water conservation goals mentioned above are not only laudable, but they are in the process of being achieved as well. As this article illustrates, much of the grunt work involved in attaining such success is performed by UCSB undergraduates who volunteer their time and energy to realize such projects. If you care about such things yourself and would like to know how to become involved, contact Campus Sustainability Coordinator Katie Maynard in 1712 Ellison Hall or by email at kmaynard@geog.ucsb.edu.
Article by Bill Norrington, with a lot of help from his friends!
