Wasted well water could be better used
By Morgan Hunter
In the midst of Santa Clara University's present drive for sustainability, the construction and management of the Learning Commons has been held up as a guidepost for the rest of the campus. This is not only because of its energy-saving abundance of natural light, but also for its thorough recycling of what remained of the previous library. Yet some may remember the striking fact which, literally, underlies all of these good intentions, one which becomes particularly shocking when we recall that Santa Clara County residents have been officially urged to cut back water use by 15 percent. Similarly, nearby Fresno County languishes in its newly-declared status as a drought disaster area.
I refer to the 70 to 120 gallons of water pumped out every minute by the remaining dewatering wells which serve to keep the library building's foundation dry--enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool such as Santa Clara's, every five days.
Amazingly enough, the outflow from these wells is simply released into the San Francisco Bay, rather than being utilized toward any useful purpose.
When I brought up this topic with Assistant Vice President of University Operations Joe Sugg--you might think of him as Santa Clara's Sustainability Czar--, he assured me that this undeniable waste was no mere oversight on the part of the university administration. Rather, the immediate and apparent uses to which the water could be put to use--in irrigation or in air-conditioning cooling towers--would not outweigh the cost of using it: a $3.50 state tax on every unit (748 gallons) of non-potable well water used productively.
And as no one has come up with any cost-benefit-worthy uses, the water will continue to gush from under Santa Clara's premier "green" building into the sewer and then, ultimately, into the Pacific Ocean. While this has been presented as a no-loss proposition, it simply doesn't make sense: the well water, while legally not potable, is not saline like sea water, which requires extensive, expensive desalinization to be brought to an institution such as Santa Clara's, which is perfectly suitable for any number of approved gray water uses.
The most natural thing to do in response to an absurd situation like this is to simply engage in a bit of civil disobedience and put the water to work without coughing up the cash -- the university could simultaneously save money for itself, conserve a genuinely critical resource and, hopefully, attract enough attention to get a foolish law repealed or at least an exception made in this particular case. As the oldest university in California, we certainly deserve to be grandfathered in--a task, one might add, quite suitable for the faculty and students of our law school.
However, should cooler or perhaps just more timid heads prevail, I would call upon all of the students reading this, particularly those involved with our prize-winning Solar Decathlon team or the Green Club, to put their passion and ingenuity to the test and write Joe Sugg or myself with ideas for how the gray water produced by the wells can be cost-effectively used on campus. Keep in mind that any use, such as in cooling towers, that changes the character of the water--i.e., by heating it--will mean that it must be treated in the sewer system, which is added to the university's water bill.
As the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Here on our own sustainability oriented campus lies a great opportunity to do just that.
Students can potentially make a real difference in the environmental impact of their university's activities by preserving a genuinely precious resource, one that is already scarce.
Morgan Hunter is a junior classics major. Contact Morgan at MHunter@scu.edu