Efforts to conserve water at Ohio University have successfully decreased water usage on campus in recent years, but this has led to an increase in city water prices.
In the past six academic years, OU's water consumption peaked in 2002-03 at 243 million gallons. Since efforts toward reduction have increased, water consumption has decreased 23 million gallons in two years, according to records provided by Ron Chapman, OU's director of energy management, who previously worked as Athens' utility director and service safety director until 1995.
The city charged OU about $1.4 million during the 2003-04 academic year when the university used about 226 million gallons. The next year, however, when actual water usage dropped to 220 million gallons, prices rose to $1.51 million.
The city has to raise water prices in order to be able to pay their costs
Chapman said. They see a dip in their revenue and need to pump rates back up. Any time we've saved recently they've taken a hit.
By law, the city's water and sewage treatment facilities must be self-sufficient. With OU as Athens' biggest customer, when the university reduces its usage the city's only choice is to raise water prices for everyone, Chapman said.
The typical two-person Athens household uses 5,000 gallons of water a month and pays a monthly base rate of $7.87, said Ray Hazlett, Athens' assistant service safety director.
In December 2005, OU paid $69,244 for 7.8 million gallons.
The safety service director sets water prices, taking costs, anticipated costs and inflation into consideration, Hazlett said.
Significant water reduction actually began for OU in the 2000-01 academic year, when the first Residence Challenge was held and more attention was directed toward energy reduction, Chapman said.
Additions such as Bromley Hall, Bentley Annex, Margaret M. Walter Hall and several additional Peden Stadium accounts since 2000 caused a difference in actual and normalized water use. Normalized water use refers to what the water use would be without the new additions. Consumption adjusted with this in mind shows that water usage has been steadily decreasing from 2000-01's rate of 242 million gallons, Chapman said.
Additionally, an irrigation pond was created in 2002 to provide irrigation water on campus. Pumping water from the pond is less expensive than buying water from the city. In addition, the city assumes that water coming into a unit will go back out as sewage and bases sewage consumption off water usage. Because the irrigation water is not pumped back out, the university saved 100 percent on sewage costs, Chapman said.
New water fixtures across campus greatly reduce water consumption as well, Chapman said. New high-efficiency restroom fixtures use one to three gallons per flush, as opposed to the three to five gallons on standard fixtures. New faucets and showerheads dispense two gallons of water per minute, as opposed to the older ones that dispense five, he said.
We want to reduce in a non-obtrusive way Chapman said. We don't want to inconvenience anyone
Since Jan. 16, the annual Residence Challenge has prompted all 41 OU residence halls to cut back on water and electrical use, said Andy Sinozich, energy performance contractor and site project manager for Cinergy Solutions Energy Performance, a contractor that helps the university reduce utility costs.
The top three winners from each green receive a cash prize based on 8 percent of total savings. The average savings per eight-week challenge period is $70,000, he said.
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