Tech announces drought task force
In response to the ongoing drought and the current need to reduce water consumption, Institute President Wayne Clough has announced that a water conservation task force will be formed. The announcement was made last week to the Student Government Association, and the task force will be formed in the near future.
The task force will be headed by Marcia Kinstler of the Environmental Stewardship Office and will be composed of members from multiple campus groups such as Faculty, Housing and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The exact size and composition of the task force is unknown.
"There will be at least one student, and hopefully there will be more than one student represented on the committee, as really, the students are stakeholders in this conservation effort," said Anu Parvatiyar, undergraduate student body president.
Currently the task force is only concerned with campus conservation measures, not with an Atlanta or Georgia-wide effort. While only campus water-users will be directly effected, any initiatives taken on by campus water users, including the ten to twelve thousand residents in campus housing, will have a large impact on the Atlanta community as a whole.
Tech is currently the second largest consumer of water in Atlanta, trailing only to the Gatorade plant in south Fulton County. Tech uses roughly 300 to 350 million gallons of water annually, despite a nearly 25% reduction in water use per square foot of campus over the past seven years.
The task force has the immediate goal of reducing water usage on campus by 10%, focusing on both operational changes to building infrastructures as well as long-term sustainability initiatives and education.
"We don't have the funds to rebuild all of campus to update the water systems, but fortunately all of the new buildings designed for Tech follow a very strict set of conservation guidelines," Parvatiyar said.
All new buildings collect excess water in cisterns for re-use, and all of Tech's green space is watered with grey-water.
Grant Field is also now watered via on-campus water sources. An underground spring was found under the field, rerouted through Atlanta storm water management, and now pumps back into the grey-water sprinkling system for the field.
The task force will be working with Housing and Auxiliary Services, looking at such seemingly small changes as installing hand sanitizers in the bathrooms so as to limit water use.
Common conservation efforts such as reduced size water tanks in toilets and the installation of low-flow water faucets are also under consideration. Currently 75% of hand faucets on campus and 80% of shower-heads are low-flow.
The buildings on campus not directly under the control of the institute, such as Greek houses and the restaurants in Tech Square are also encouraged to limit their water use.
"The city of Atlanta is under a total watering ban right now, so affiliated properties should also be limiting their water intake. I can't imagine why any property affiliated with campus would not be in line with the Institute's goals. Not only would it be defying the Institute, but we all need to take part in conservation," Parvatiyar said.
Despite the seemingly constant rain last week, Georgia still remains in a persistent drought. Governor Perdue resorted to drastic measures two weeks ago when the State of Georgia filed a law suit requesting that the Army Corps of Engineers reduce the amount of water released from Lake Lanier to Florida until March 1. While Lake Lanier is in no immediate danger of running completely dry, the water supply is quickly reaching the low pool point, which is the point where secondary piping methods will have to be used to obtain drinking water for the Atlanta community.
