Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.20
Liaison Josh Lasky
Submission Date May 14, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

George Washington University
OP-T2-46: Non-Potable Water Usage

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 0.25 Ronda Chapman-Duer
Sustainability Project Facilitator
Division of Operations
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution use non-potable water (e.g., harvested rainwater or graywater) for irrigation and/or other applications?:
Yes

A brief description of the source of non-potable water and how it is used:

The university has several on-campus gardens that use rain barrels to collect rain water for reuse in the gardens. For one large building the university uses untreated ground water for irrigation.

The university also has a certified LEED Sustainable Site which was a former parking lot, now a green space, with a rain water collection system and rain barrels to irrigate the grass and plants, and for source water for a fountain. As part of the project planning and management process, the GW Operations Team seized the opportunity to make GW’s urban campus even more environmentally friendly. They embarked on a process to create a plaza on Square 80 that would be beautiful, enjoyable, and acts as an urban resource that protects the Potomac Watershed. Permeable brick pavers include an under-tray system used to collect rainfall. Three below-ground cisterns totaling 33,000 gallons hold the rainwater. Runnels capture non-permeable hard-scape run-off and direct it into tree pits and planters. Rooftop water is diverted from adjacent buildings into the cistern system. Where parking is required by zoning laws, Grass-Pave™ is installed and planted with Buffalo grass. All plantings are native (70%) and adapted (30%) species, further reducing water demand. The fountain draws from the cistern system, and auto shuts-off when the water supply runs low.

The GW Law Learning Center has one 6,000 gal cistern and one 15,000 that are being used to irrigate the Center's surrounding property.

In addition, The newly constructed Milken Institute School of Public Health was built to capture 8,796 gallons of graywater for reuse in all bathrooms for flushing, within the building that make up approximately 4,682 square feet in total, making up 28% of the buildings square footage.


The percentage of irrigation water usage from recovered, reclaimed or untreated sources :
5

The percentage of building space using water from recovered, reclaimed or untreated sources:
28

The percentage of water used in utility plants from recovered, reclaimed or untreated sources:
0

The website URL where information about the program, policy, or practice is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

As part of GW's Ecosystems Enhancement Strategy, the university will reuse all retained stormwater for greywater systems, cooling towers, and irrigation by 2021.


As part of GW's Ecosystems Enhancement Strategy, the university will reuse all retained stormwater for greywater systems, cooling towers, and irrigation by 2021.

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