{"id":26377,"date":"2010-12-13T08:26:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T13:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=26377"},"modified":"2010-12-15T13:10:44","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T18:10:44","slug":"reclaiming-water-a-green-leap-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/12\/reclaiming-water-a-green-leap-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming Water: A Green Leap Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<p>Recycling<\/a>UConn will soon begin work on a new water reclamation facility that will enable the University to utilize hundreds of thousands of gallons of treated waste water every day in an environmentally-friendly way. The move represents an important step in UConn\u2019s long-term water usage strategy.<\/p>\n

The new facility will use a tertiary treatment process for the University\u2019s waste water. This process uses microfiltration and ultraviolet disinfection, which will allow UConn to divert a maximum of 1 million gallons of non-potable \u2013 not drinkable \u2013 water each day to meet campus needs that don\u2019t require fresh water.<\/p>\n

First among them is the CoGen power plant, which provides most of the power for the Storrs campus. CoGen uses anywhere between 250,000 and 450,000 gallons of water each day \u2013 depending on demand \u2013 which is needed to cool the turbines that create power. This is currently done using potable water. The reclaimed water facility will allow the University to use the treated non-potable water to meet this need instead, freeing up thousands of gallons of potable water. The reclaimed water can also be used for irrigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the first facility of its kind in Connecticut,\u201d said Thomas Callahan of UConn\u2019s Administration and Operations office, which is spearheading the project. \u201cThis represents a better way to manage the different demands on our water supply in a way that is very environmentally-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

On average, the University currently uses about 1.3 million gallons of water each day on the Storrs campus. Once completed, the reclaimed water facility will immediately help the University meet water demands and will also provide an important new source of supply for meeting the University\u2019s long-term non-potable needs. UConn, in partnership with the Town of Mansfield, is also evaluating options to meet the area\u2019s long-term drinking water requirements, including interconnecting the University\u2019s water supply system with one or more of the region\u2019s nearby water systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater reclamation is a way to strategically expand and better utilize our water supply,\u201d said Callahan. \u201cBy matching reclaimed water with existing and future non-potable system demands, this facility will substantially extend our drinking water resources by around 20 percent, which is particularly important as the campus continues to grow and the Storrs Downtown development gets underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project will help the University protect stream-flow in the Fenton and Willimantic Rivers during seasonally dry periods while meeting its water supply requirements.<\/p>\n

Construction of the facility will begin in the spring and it will be ready in 2012, when the early phases of construction of Storrs Downtown will be complete. The project will be funded through university funds and will cost between $20 million and $26 million.<\/p>\n

The University\u2019s Board of Trustees previously approved the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new water reclamation facility will boost UConn\u2019s drinkable water supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[39],"class_list":["post-26377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 17:24:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26377"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66558,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26377\/revisions\/66558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26377"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=26377"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=26377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}