Furman University
OP-26: Water Use

One of our biggest projects is the closed-loop solar/aquatic waste water treatment system in the Charles Townes Science Center. The living machine uses natural processes to clean the building’s water. It’s then re-circulated into the building as grey water, which can be used for non-potable water demands like flushing toilets.

The dashboard allows Furman community members to view energy use in real-time through an easy-to-use website. We’ve made the data available to faculty and students for use in the classroom and in research, making it easier to build connections between the coursework and university operations. The dashboard was partially funded by a gift from The Duke Endowment. For more information on Furman's dashboard contact the Shi Center.

On a smaller scale, we retrofitted our dormitories with low flow shower aerators and sink aerators and switched our iconic fountains from a 24-hour operating schedule to an eight-hour operating schedule, reducing the amount of water lost to evaporation. We’ve also upgraded our irrigation efficiency by using water from Furman Lake. That change alone covers 30 percent of our irrigation needs.

In the past decade, Furman has used a number of different LID practices and products on a multitude of projects – both new and renovation. These include: structural grass pavement and gravel pavement, porous concrete pavement, pervious brick pavement (with underdrain filtration), rainwater harvesting and storage for irrigation, detention ponds, grass filtration strips, buffers on both sides of Little Creek, and manufactured structures such as catch basin inserts, cyclone separators and offset bay separators. And, of course, the new Synthetic Turf Football Field that catches and slows the runoff rate, cleans the stormwater of sediment, and does not require the use of nutrients that damage the environment. Some areas of campus are maintained with xeriscape landscaping techniques, including drought tolerant and native species as appropriate. The area surrounding Cliffs Cottage, the Susan Shi ornamental garden, is a highlight of the university's xeriscaped landscape. Other areas of campus which employ xeriscape techniques include the landscape at Farmer Hall, our new Child Development Center, Tennis Center, Track Infield, and several recreation fields on campus. At the Shi Center, we harvest rainwater coming off of the high-pitched roof into gutters, which flow into downspouts and then proceed through underground pipes headed for the 12,000 gallon capacity cisterns. In addition, any excess water flowing from the gutters flows down 2 water chains on each side of the porch, which flow into successive bog (rain) gardens before finally reaching our lake. The water collected from the cisterns is used primarily to water the Susan Shi garden. The water from the rain chains flows into 3 small bog (rain) gardens (6 total) located below the porch. From there, they are directed underground into the large bog before reaching our lake (after filtering impurities). Various water loving plants are sustained in our bog gardens which create an environment for numerous bugs, insects and wildlife (plants such as iris', grasses, hibiscus, dwarf horse tail, cat tails, rush, etc.) In essence, a bog (rain garden) mimics a marsh, which is nature's way of filtering dirty water into clean water for the environment, while at the same time providing food and habitat for all of earth's inhabitants.

See above