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EPA Facility Water Management Progress

EPA has completed water management plans at 20 of its laboratories. The Agency continues to make water management a priority, drafting water management plans for facilities at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina campus, and incorporating water conservation strategies at other facilities.

Facility Water Use (gallons/year) BMPs**Instituted Achievements Savings
Ada, OK FY07:
3,806,403

FY00-06 Average:
4,401,417
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Ann Arbor, MI FY07:
6,518,525

FY00-06 Average:
8,410,890
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
Completed Water Management Plan.

Instituted ESPC.

Downsized cooling tower.

Converted wet exhaust scrubber to more efficient dry scrubber.
ESPC reduced water use by approximately 80 percent.

Water consumption between 1994 and 2003 was reduced by approximately 26.4 million gallons a year.
Athens, GA ORD FY07:
3,463,780

FY00-06 Average:
4,829,332
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Athens, GA SESD FY07:
3,429,669

FY00-06 Average:
3,382,816
  • Education
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Chelmsford, MA FY07:
1,166,400

FY00-06 Average:
2,291,457
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Reuse/Recycle
Completed Water Management Plan.

Installed two waterless urinals.
New urinals save 20,000 to 80,000 gallons a year.
Cincinnati, OH AWBERC FY07:
26,536,606

FY00-06 Average:
25,069,947
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Towers
  • Reuse/Recycle
Completed Water Management Plan.

Added automated level controls to cooling towers to maintain proper water amount, reducing consumption.

Replaced distilled water system with a reverse osmosis, deionized system.
 
Corvallis, OR WED FY07:
6,178,910

FY00-06 Average:
6,276,866
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
Completed Water Management Plan.

Replaced computer room air conditioning unit cooled by a continuous flow of water with a unit that uses recirculated chilled glycol for cooling.
Eliminated need for single-pass cooling water, saving over 3 million gallons a year.

Saved approximately 1.5 million gallons of water and between $6,000 to $9,000 annually after installing control valves on its autoclaves.
Corvallis, OR
WRS
FY07:
142,878

FY00-06 Average:
644,286
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Duluth, MN FY07:
964,239

FY00-06 Average:
1,273,456
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
Completed Water Management Plan.

Design completed and construction started on a culture water reclamation system.
 
Edison, NJ FY07:
4,635,356

FY00-06 Average:
5,524,013
  • Education
  • Landscaping
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Towers
Completed Water Management Plan.
Fort Meade,
MD
FY07:
5,628,000

FY00-06 Average:
6,732,753
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
Completed Water Management Plan.

Maximized water efficiency by reducing the hours of deionized water operations and reducing the use of cooling tower blowdown water.

In 2004, completed installation and commissioning of a new super-conductivity system to control cooling tower and boiler water recycle concentrations.

Implemented a dry chemical treatment system to reduce material handling at the laboratory.
Efforts to optimize cooling tower operation and deionized water production efficiency combined to save almost 2 million gallons of water in FY03.

Super-conductivity system reduced water consumption by nearly 14 percent during the first two quarters of FY 2005, compared to the same time period averaged over the previous two years.
Golden, CO FY07:
3,561,000

FY00-06 Average:
3,858,793
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
Completed Water Management Plan.

Xeriscaping project under design as of May 2005.
Grosse Ile, MI FY07:
342,608

FY00-06 Average:
515,468
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Boilers
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Gulf Breeze, FL FY07:
6,822,061

FY00-06 Average:
6,978,600
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
  • Misc. High Water-Using Processes
  • Reuse/Recycle
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Houston,
TX
FY07:
3,123,000

FY00-06 Average:
3,564,857
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Tower
  • Reuse/Recycle
Completed Water Management Plan.

Installed air handler condensate recovery system in 1997. The system collects water that forms on part of the mechanical equipment and recycles it back through the system.
Condensate recovery system saves nearly 832,000 gallons a year; about 7 million gallons of water saved since installation in 1997.
Las Vegas,
NV
FY07:
2,298,400

FY00-06 Average:
4,602,213
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Cooling Towers
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Manchester, WA FY07:
647,663

FY00-06 Average:
1,634,591
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Boilers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
  • Misc. High Water-Using Processes
Completed Water Management Plan.

Employees utilized the facility's autoclave stand-by function.
By reducing the use and water consumption of the autoclaves, an estimated 60,000 gallons of water were saved.
Narragansett, RI FY07:
2,633,143

FY00-06 Average:
3,403,317
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Boilers
  • Cooling Towers
Completed Water Management Plan.

Completed Sustainable Master Plan.
Mechanical upgrades helped reduce water consumption in FY 2004 by more than 26 percent compared to the previous five-year average.
Newport, OR FY07:
257,000

FY00-06 Average:
997,143
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showers
  • Single-Pass Cooling
Completed Water Management Plan.  
Research Triangle Park, NC
Main*
 
FY07:
53,067,954*

FY00-06 Average:
44,141,200

*Note: Water use at RTP-Main includes makeup water for the central utility plant.
  Draft Water Management Plan.

Installed waterless urinals.
 
Research   Triangle   Park, NC NHEERL
 

FY07:
6,674,120*

FY00-06 Average:
8,193,927

  Draft Water Management Plan.  
Research Triangle Park, NC
Human Studies
FY07:
1,998,000

FY00-06
Average:
7,008,762
  Draft Water Management Plan.  
Richmond, CA FY07:
170,544

FY00-06 Average:
292,896
  • Education
  • Leak Detection
  • Landscaping
  • Toilets/Urinals
  • Faucets/Showerheads
  • Single-Pass Cooling
Completed Water Management Plan.  

** BMPs = Best Management Practices. Read the complete list of Best Management Practices

Date: December 2, 2008


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