BCGR: ACU Green (Part 3)
By: Chris Whited, KRBC News
Updated: March 31, 2009
We continue our look at green efforts on the Abilene Christian university campus on this edition of the Big Country Green Report. We look at how the university is putting Abilene's waste water and rain water to a green use.
When you take a drive down Judge Ely Boulevard pass the ACU campus, it's hard not to miss the lake and spouting water fountain in front of the new Hunter Welcome Center. Most may think it's just another scenic landmark, but it's actually another green effort of the university. The lake is actually collected effluent water from the city used by the campus.
Scot Colley, ACU Assistant Director of Physical Resources told KRBC News that "we get the water and it comes to us from the city from their treatment plant east of town and it comes into our lake here." Effluent water is wastewater that has been treated enough for commercial use for irrigation but not for human consumption. The university uses the water to keep the landscape green, even in the times of drought. The university also also supplies the water to Christian Village and Abilene Christian Schools. "We pump it down quite a but each night and each day we fill it back up in the evening. We try to keep everything green and we have a pretty impressive watering schedule," he explained.
The day of our interview with Colley, it was another dry day in the abilene area. Since then mother nature has provided us with rainfall. Rainwater collection has become another important recycling effort by ACU. Colley said "our lake catches all their rainwater on campus. All of our parking lots drain down into this lake, the main part of campus drains into this lake." This water is also used for irrigation. Officials are also looking at installing rain-water catching systems on buildings for other uses such as running restrooms.
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