University of North Carolina Athletics
Sustainable Athletics At UNC: Tuesday
January 26, 2016 | General
Sustainable Athletics at UNC
GoHeels.com will look at an area of sustainability each day this week as the site highlights portions of the UNC Athletics Sustainability Report.
Monday: Introduction/Energy
Tuesday: Water
Wednesday: Recycling
Thursday: Transportation & Purchasing
Friday: Service
Water
Between construction, upkeep, and irrigation of athletic venues, as well as the use of rest rooms within the venues, athletic events require a lot of water. Through campus policies and renovations of venues, UNC Athletics has successfully decreased the demand on the water supply throughout the department.
The Higher Education Bond, which passed in 2000, provided $10 million for storm water infrastructure at UNC and for the Storm Water Management Plan. One year later, the Town of Chapel Hill's Development Plan laid out regulations for storm water runoff, requiring construction companies to remove a large percentage of dirt and other pollutants from their work sites to prevent them from entering the runoff. Although largely directed at construction sites, this plan has driven outdoor athletic sites, like Boshamer Stadium, to recycle water used for irrigation, preventing fertilizer from being washed downstream.
In 2002, North Carolina suffered the worst drought in recorded history, and the need for water-saving practices and policies became increasingly evident. In the same year, the cistern under Hooker Fields was completed, but it could not be immediately sodded due to the severe drought. Following the drought, the University discussed plans with Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) to develop a reclaimed water system that would decrease the University's demand on potable water. The system, completed six years later, provides non-potable water to cooling towers, and has expanded to irrigate some athletic fields on campus, including Fetzer Field, Kenan Stadium, and Anderson Stadium. Fetzer Field, Navy Field, and Boshamer Stadium use recaptured water, and Finley Golf Course provides recaptured water for Finley Fields.
After several years of construction, the reclaimed water system became fully functional in April 2009. The system treats reclaimed water just as stringently as drinking water, except for a final purifying step to make it potable. This water can be safely used to irrigate land and flush toilets, but it is significantly cheaper to treat and can therefore be purchased by the University at a much lower rate. It has also resulted in a substantial decrease in the demand on the town's drinking water, making it more accessible for essential needs throughout the Chapel Hill community. The University paid the majority of the cost of the system, which is now worth over $14 million.
Since the summer of 2010, the University has used reclaimed water in all five chiller plants in Chapel Hill, which account for one quarter of the campus demand. In 2011-12 alone, the University used 250 million gallons of reclaimed water, which decreased the demand on potable water by 30%. In addition, as the system continues to expand, the use of reclaimed water on athletic fields is expected to save 10 million gallons of potable water per year. The current system can meet a peak day demand of 3 million gallons per day (MGD). Currently, the average daily demand is approximately 0.91 MGD.
Another source of non-potable water on campus is the cisterns, located under athletic fields and parking structures, which capture rainwater and runoff from irrigation. These cisterns decrease the amount of water used from OWASA for irrigating athletic fields and flushing toilets in certain buildings on campus. While reclaimed water is available to irrigate all outdoor athletic fields, some venues have also been set up to use harvested rainwater for field irrigation, which allows reclaimed water to be used only as a backup in dry conditions. In addition to decreasing the demand on potable water, the capture and use of rainwater prevents runoff of fertilizer into streams and storm water drains, which could have negatively impacted the local ecosystem. Infiltration beds also mitigate storm water runoff and erosion by capturing rainwater and releasing it slowly back into the ground.
Cisterns can be found under Hooker Fields, Rams Head plaza, the Global Education Center, Hanes Hall, the Bell Tower parking lot, and the Boshamer parking lot. Additionally, infiltration beds can be found underneath Hooker, Navy, and Ehringhaus Fields. Installation of infiltration beds and cisterns on campus has contributed to more than a 40 percent decrease in potable water use in the past 10 years.
The Athletic Department has also taken other steps to reduce the amount of water used at athletic events, including the replacement of toilets with low-flow versions. These toilets have dual-flush valves that reduce water consumption by up to 0.5 gallons (30%) per flush. In addition, the showers in the football locker room have been retrofitted with low-flow showerheads, which can decrease water consumption by up to 50%. Both of these updates come at a relatively low cost while significantly decreasing the water use in athletic venues.
