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Throughout the US, many governmental water agencies are partnering with local school districts in identifying and addressing water waste issues. “Schools represent a huge water use,” notes Steve Estes-Smargiassi, director of planning for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. “It’s one of those places where it’s really unfortunate if money is going down the drain through inefficient water use, as opposed to going into their core mission. Water efficiency is not just economic gain, but, an opportunity for resources to be shifted to schools’ core mission.”

Florida’s Game Plan
Elias Franco, manager of the consumer affairs division for the City of Tampa, Florida’s water department, points out, that, in addition to implementing practical water efficiency measures at school facilities, it’s just as important to bring the knowledge of those practices into the classroom. “The game plan for many years was to get teach students the virtues of water conservation at a very early stage, and, hopefully, those seeds we plant will amount to good practices as adults,” says Franco.

In addition to instituting water-efficient measures at schools, there also is a focus on ensuring that new school buildings are built to be water-efficient from the get-go. That effort is gaining prominence through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Through the LEED for Schools Rating System for new construction and major renovations, builders and contractors can earn water efficiency credits:

• One point for reducing potable water consumption for irrigation by 50% through plant species, efficient irrigation measures, and use of captured rainwater, recycled wastewater, and water treated and conveyed by a public agency specifically for non-potable use.
• An additional point for eliminating potable water use for landscape irrigation altogether, by using only captured rainwater, recycled wastewater, recycled greywater, or water treated and conveyed by a public agency, specifically for non-potable use; or by installing landscaping that does not require permanent irrigation systems.
• One point for the application of innovative wastewater technologies, by either reducing potable water use for building sewage conveyance by 50% through the use of such water-conserving fixtures as water closets and urinals, or non-potable water (captured rainwater, recycled greywater, and on-site or municipally-treated wastewater), or by treating 50% of wastewater on-site to tertiary standards. The treated water must be infiltrated or used onsite.
• One point for reducing water use by 20% within buildings. Calculations are based on estimated occupant usage and include such fixtures as water closets, urinals, lavatory faucets, showers, and kitchen sinks.

In Tampa, located in the nation’s eighth-largest school district of Hillsborough County, FL, the city’s water department has partnered with local schools in a number of creative ways, such as sponsoring art and T-shirt contests. With current funding being tight, the focus is now on teacher training, classroom presentations, and hosting tours of the city’s water treatment facility.

Meanwhile, Tampa’s water department has created an extensive checklist of measures that schools can implement in order to conserve water. Franco says some schools have incorporated many of the measures. He points out that water waste is not so much measured in water volume, but behavioral practices. 

“If you’re not paying attention to the leaking or running faucets, or how many times the toilets are being flushed in the restrooms, that may be huge in terms of waste from an applications perspective, but the total gallons at the end of the day doesn’t stack up with an industrial customer,” says Franco. “Those are the areas where it’s just inattention; kids forgetting to do certain things. A school system may know it has some leaking toilets or leaking interior pipes, but doesn’t get around to addressing them or the energy manager may not be doing comparisons of like schools from one to another.”

Schools that take the issue seriously establish baselines on how many gallons per day, month, year, and during the school year versus the off season are used, and note that if there is a large variance, it becomes a red flag worthy of investigation, says Franco.

Generally speaking, water efficiency is just one of several factors examined during an energy audit. “If you are doing a complete energy audit of a facility, and you bring in an expert who is looking at electricity, gas, and water, they may uncover it in that particular vein,” says Franco, “but in many cases water is not the one that hits you between the eyes when you look at utility bills. It’s usually electric or some other utility.”

Meanwhile, in southwest Florida, school officials and water authorities are taking the message of water efficiency into the classroom, with the intent of creating next-generation water conservation practices. Example: the Water Conservation Education Arts Program administered by the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and funded in part by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Hillsborough County Water Department. A similar effort is presented in Florida’s Pinellas County.

The program consists of live theatrical performances about water conservation and watersheds, targeting children in kindergarten through sixth grades. Students learn about the watershed in which they live, whether their water source is surface water or groundwater, and how to conserve water through everyday activities, such as turning off water when they brush their teeth. The program has reached up to 65,000 students each year. Teachers receive advance material, such as hands-on activities, so students can do some work prior to seeing the performances. 

Raina O’Neil, the lead communications director for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, believes students will become better stewards of water, as a result of being exposed to such learning opportunities, something her agency aims to quantify through measuring its impact on long-term attitudes and behaviors.

Rising Prices Get Attention
Water savings is a matter of “getting the principal, utility managers and even the instructors, to tune in and have the attitude that every drop counts,” O’Neil adds. Escalating water bills several years ago had certainly captured the attention of Fort Collins, CO school officials. Case in point: the Poudre School District.

Photo: Stu Reeve

In Fort Collins, CO, the Poudre School District schools, such as Harris Elementary, are using turf, which has a 15-year life cycle and needs less watering.

In the last decade, the school district saw water prices rising a steady 6% annually, and, in 2001, water and sewer bills exceeded that of natural gas by about $20,000. Concerned officials sought ways to reduce the bill. They focused on their biggest use of water on its 350 acres at 44 schools: around 85% of the domestic water had been used for irrigation, primarily to water grass.

The response included a multi-pronged approach. Bluegrass areas are being reduced in favor of artificial turf. “We’re using some artificial turf now, which is about a $600,000 investment up front, but anymore around schools it’s not just football or baseball anymore: it’s lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, and a lot of different sports,” says Stu Reeve, energy manager for the Poudre School District.

More native drought-tolerant plants and trees are being installed. “Rather than replacing that turf every three to five years and having to water and maintain it, we invest in an artificial turf field and we can play it a lot more. It has a 15-year life cycle, and we don’t have to water it or maintain it near as much. It ends up being a good investment for us in the long term.”

The Fort Collins region gets 15 inches of moisture a year on average, notes Reeve. “We been in a draught since about 1999,” he says. “We were sitting in about eight inches of moisture in August [2007], where we should be easily sitting at about 12. We’re usually heading into the end of the year getting closer to 15. So, we really do have to manage how we use the water.

“Native and draught tolerant plantings are all high priorities for us in, not only remodeled maintenance areas in existing schools, but, for sure, into our new buildings.”

The district uses raw water instead of treated city water whenever possible. Sprinkler operators are trained on how to audit and maintain sprinkler systems. And, in new building construction, more attention is focused on proper sprinkler system design and installation. The district began to expand its use of automated irrigation controls. The daily watering schedule is adjusted automatically through radio wave signals sent from the district’s centralized irrigation control system. Each school utilizes weather data from a nearby station, which automatically establishes the watering schedule. During draught conditions, the district can set the water target lower than the standard recommended amount, using ‘deficit watering.’

“We make that network available to others as well, so they can use those weather stations and our computerized automated irrigation systems,” says Reeve. “It downloads the ET information and weather data 6 a.m. every day, and we can water—based on the ET information or a percentage of that—if we’re in draught management.”

Training those who work with the irrigation systems was another priority. “We started working with the folks in charge of managing our automatic irrigation systems, and we found the system wasn’t being used to its full potential,” says Reeve. “We started training those folks and over a three-year-period; we made sure every winter we were bringing in water experts and working with our staff, to make sure they had all the tools and knowledge to do the best management practices with their responsibilities on the irrigation side. From that, we were able to see substantial savings.”

That savings meant a reduction of more than half of the water usage, from the 200 million gallons a year the school district had been using, to less than 100 million gallons. Schools and city parks—often built next to each other—are sharing irrigation systems. In one example, a city park’s pond is the source of water for irrigation for the nearby school as well. The school district paid $3,000 to upgrade the park’s pumping station, splitting maintenance costs with the city. That particular school’s water bill had dropped nearly in half, with a return on the investment reaped in just more than a year.

Water-efficiency measures are being taken inside schools as well, as older fixtures are being replaced with those that use less water. The school system is presently adding square footage in new schools being built. New landscape methods center on such practices as xeriscaping and hardscaping. At existing sites, when grass is being replaced every three years or so, the school district is considering similar alternatives.

 “With anything that we build new, we’re strongly into high performance, sustainable designs,” says Reeve. “With school interiors and exteriors, we’re looking at water efficiency as a huge opportunity.”

The school district began constructing LEED-certified high performance schools in 2001 and has been building at least one each year. “We don’t do LEED all of the time,” notes Reeve. “We definitely have high performance, sustainable design guidelines, and use LEED as a tool.”

The money savings from the combined water conservation efforts go back into the classroom, Reeve notes. “The goal is to reduce the amount of expenses,” he points out. “If you take a look at our whole energy conservation, and water management philosophy, it’s really all about saving this money so it can go back to support the classroom and our educational mission.”

Part of that educational mission is students learning about water conservation. “We have a program called ‘Energy Rules,’” says Reeve. “It includes a piece about water and stormwater management. We have two people on staff with Fort Collins Utilities who go through every school in the district to teach about environmental stewardship, water conservation, and some of the impacts of stormwater.”

Such education efforts have a domino effect, Reeve says. “It trickles out to the community, as there are parents attached to all these students,” he points out.

Long-Term Success in MA
Meanwhile, a program begun in Massachusetts 20 years ago to conserve water has demonstrated long-term success. In 1987, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) started the Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Water Management Program (ICI) in response to the state being over the safety yield of its system—using more water than could safely be supplied—for a number of years. Schools were part of the target institutions.

“We looked at everything from the reservoir to the tap for about seven years,” says Estes-Smargiassi. “By the third year, we were under our safe yield, and by the fourth and fifth years, it was clear the trends were continuing downward and we begin to scale back the degree of our effort. It’s available, but we’re no longer doing audits.”

The goal of ICI was to seek long-term, year-round savings. Unlike other states, Massachusetts hadn’t been struggling with a draught or summer water capacity problem. “We were just using more water than we could safely withdraw,” Estes-Smargiassi says.

MWRA examined various sectors, including educational institutions. Audits were conducted and literature was produced, with case studies illustrating successful examples of how making just a few changes resulted in water and money savings for educational institutions.

For example, educational facilities took such measures as converting to lower-flow showerheads, retrofitting flushometer toilets, installing spray nozzles in kitchen sinks, retrofitting shop sinks to lower flow usage, and minimizing evaporation through
keeping the pool temperature at 84??qF, as recommended by the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers.

Other measures included the installation of a tensiometer or water-limiting switch on irrigation systems, and recycling cooling water via a closed-loop, heat-exchange system, which would replace the use of ‘once through’ cooling water for the portable lab equipment, resulting in a five-million gallon annual water savings.

Initial investments to make such changes ranged from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, but the water savings was substantial and financial return on the investment was realized within a few years in most cases. Those facilities continue their water-savings efforts to this day, setting the example for others.

“Our experience has been that, when you talk to the facility managers at many places, they have continued to search out opportunities,” says Estes-Smargiassi. “In some places, they’ve done it as they do renovations. In other places, it’s been more of a slow and steady search for water-saving opportunities as a way of reducing their costs.”

“We saw a lot of people who got enthused about trying to save water during that time period,” she continues. “Our rates were also going up, which was part of the reason they were enthused. So we were able to kind of have a dual message: help us save water, but help control your costs. That resonated quite well with folks.”

Water usage at the dozen of educational facilities studied ranged from two million gallons to more than 17 million. “We were seeing savings in many of these places in the several to 10 percent range from the audits we were doing,” says Estes-Smargiassi. “We were looking for system-wide gross savings.”

The ICI program also includes a classroom-based educational component. “Our approach is that, in order to have us talk to a class, the school needed to get our material and do work ahead of time. We did teacher training and developed course curriculum, structured around the kind of educational objectives the schools needed to do in order to meet their state certifications,” Estes-Smargiassi says.

“For the younger kids, they were focused on more social problems and some math. For the high school kids, there was science, math, and some environmental lessons. We would train teachers, and do guest lectures in places where teachers had been trained to push the agenda along. But, the core is really getting the educational curriculum out to teachers and equipping them, so that every day when we aren’t there, they might still be using this in all of their classes. We continue that to this day.”

The program serves a dual purpose, he points out. “You get the students from both sides: They save water whether they know it or not, because we’ve got the school district to improve the facility, and then they save water at home, because they tell their parents about it.”

In the infant stages of the ICI program, one of the most inefficient uses of water Estes-Smargiassi saw in the school systems were the multiple showers operated by a single valve. “You’d go into a boys’ locker room and there would be a single valve that would control a dozen showers on a daisy chain around a wall,” he says. “If one kid took a shower, all 12 showers were on, and if the kid didn’t turn off the shower, all 12 continued to run.”

Another water-waster he noted was in high school labs. “In order to get a little bit of suction to run some piece of scientific apparatus, they would have a continuous flow of water and that was hugely wasteful,” he says. “You’d go in some of these schools that were built in 1920 and had 1920 vintage toilets that used nine gallons of water per flush apiece.”

Water inefficiencies in school cafeterias had been rampant as well. “Many of them had been built years earlier, and there were six- to eight-gallon-per-minute spray washes that were set up to be turned on, and left on,” says Estes-Smargiassi. “They did not have a hand control, and weren’t designed with a high pressure head, so you needed six to eight gallons to be flowing in order to be effective.”

Addressing that, merely entailed $25 to $50 retrofits with the spray heads, which saved money within weeks, Estes-Smargiassi says. Part of the challenge in establishing water efficiency measures in schools is that no one had really contemplated water costs, he says. “When you found something in one school, you found it in 10 others. You just had to get someone’s attention at the right level to tell them. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was some low-hanging fruit,” he says. “I’m hoping there’s not so much low-hanging fruit anymore.”

Schools Reduce Water Usage
Meanwhile, there are a number of measures schools can take to reduce water use. Tampa’s water department and MWRA recommend a list of measures that educate schools on water-efficient practices. Since domestic water use accounts for some 28% of water use in most schools, leak repair should be a priority in schools. More than 50 gallons of water per day is wasted through a leaking toilet; a dripping faucet or showerhead can waste up to 1,000 gallons per week. Toilet tank water displacement devices such as toilet dams, bags, or weighted bottle helps reduce water use in toilets. Tankless toilets can be retrofitted with diaphragms that save one gallon per flush. Older toilets can be replaced with those that use only 1.6 gallons per flush, realizing an average savings of about 14% of total water use in schools. If replacing a limited number of toilets, start with those located in high-traffic areas.

The options go beyond mere toilet replacement. For example, water-saving aerators or spring-loaded valves can be placed on faucets. In addition, dated gymnasium showerheads can be replaced by models using just two gallons of water per minute. Low-volume faucet aerators can be installed when the entire faucet does not need replacing. 

Heating and cooling also offer conservation opportunities. A school’s heating and cooling system is the second-largest use of water in schools, accounting for 14% of water consumption. As many cooling towers operate below suggested levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), the boiler and cooling tower blow-down rate can be adjusted to maintain TDS levels at manufacturers’ specifications. Automatic controls and conductivity meters can be installed. Water used in cooling equipment—such as compressors—can be minimized, in accordance with manufacturer's recommendations. Switches and timers can be utilized to match cooling water to the equipment’s duty cycle. 

Ozone is a recommended cooling tower treatment to reduce water used for make-up. Water-cooled air-conditioning units can be shut off when not needed, or replaced with air-cooled units. Metering of make-up water and blow-down can be regularly recorded to address anomalous usage patterns indicating leaks or other system problems. Ensuring that the return of steam condensate to a boiler for reuse also saves water, as well as retrofitting once-through water-cooled refrigeration and air conditioning units, incorporating them into recirculating cooling loops wherever possible.

Another area of water use is in kitchen areas, where 5% of school water is typically used. Ice machines should be adjusted to dispense less ice to avoid waste. The continuous flow used to wash the drain trays of the beverage island should be thoroughly cleaned. Utensils and dishes should be presoaked in basins of water, rather than running water. Spray rinsers can be installed for pot washing; reduce spray rinser flow for prewash.  Automatic shut-off spray nozzles should be replaced with low-volume nozzles utilizing two gallons a minute.

Food-preparation faucets should be turned off when not in use; foot triggers can be installed. Automatic shut-off faucets are recommended for bar sinks. Only full loads should be done in dishwashers, with spray heads replaced to reduce flow. The dishwasher rinse water can be used for the prewash cycle or as flush water in garbage disposal units, or garbage disposals can be eliminated.

In school swimming pools, water levels can be lowered to avoid splash-out. That water, which is unavoidably splashed out, can be directed onto the landscaping or back into the pool. Water used to back-flush pool filters can be reduced to a level without compromising public health and safety. Pool covers can be used to reduce evaporation and heat loss when the pool is not in use.

In classrooms, such as labs and shop, washing equipment can have aerated spray nozzles equipped with shut-off valves; once-through water cooling of lab equipment such as autoclaves and lasers can incorporate a recirculating chilled cooling loop, and Bradley (circular) sinks can be retrofitted with water-saving spray heads or sectional spray heads.

Cleaning crews can be instructed to use water efficiently for mopping. Carpet-cleaning methods can be switched from “wet,” such as steam, to “dry,” such as powder. Window cleaning can be done “as required” instead of periodically. The janitorial staff can check the water supply system for leaks, turning off unnecessary flows. In areas not being used, water and water circulation pumping can be shut off. Maintain insulation on hot water pipes.

Water meters should be read monthly, with comparisons made from the same month in the previous year. Water meters should be read daily at facilities using more than 7.5 million gallons per year, and weekly if usage exceeds more than one million gallons annually. Analyze data to determine patterns that may indicate leaks or other inconsistencies. Pressure-reducing valves should be installed when water system pressure is higher than 60 psi.

In the outdoors, draught-tolerant, low-maintenance plants are preferable and landscaping alterations should include a reduced lawn area. Mulch applied around plants reduces evaporation and weed growth. Water, fertilizer, and pesticides should be applied only as needed. Established plants can be watered only when exhibiting wilt signs. Thatch can be removed and turf aerated, to encourage water movement to plant roots.

Irrigation systems should be adjusted for seasonal changes. Automatic rain shut-off devices on sprinkler systems are helpful. Watering should be done early in the morning, or evening when wind or evaporation is at low levels. Run-off can be avoided by ensuring sprinkler systems are directed to landscaped areas, rather than impervious areas.

A low-volume drip irrigation system can be useful in meeting water efficiency goals. Tensiometers can be installed to sense soil moisture content. In general, all hoses should have shut-off nozzles. A broom, rather than a hose, can be used to clear sidewalks, driveways, loading docks and parking lots. School vehicles should be washed only as needed. Reclaimed water can be used for irrigation and other uses.

As a matter of policy in schools, employees and students can be educated about water conservation benefits, suggestion boxes can be placed in prominent areas to solicit staff and students’ ideas, signs touting water conservation can be posted, and an employee or student can be assigned to evaluate water conservation opportunities and effectiveness.