Physical plant project to decrease water use on campus

Picture this: As you stumble to the bathroom in your dorm, you see the sink on. Not just dripping, full power. The sink is overflowing and your slippers are now wet. Yes, this usually only happens Friday or Saturday night, but it's still an inconvenience for you.\nBut it's a major inconvenience for the University.\nIU has a total water bill of $3.5 million a year. This includes storm drains and irrigation as well as drinking water. Senior Ibrahim Ilyas wants to cut this cost by educating IU students about their water use.\n"As far as awareness goes, we want to reach more people and let them know what they can do to cut this cost," Ilyas said. "I am doing an internship with the Physical Plant at IU, and I'm an environmental management major."\nMost of his work is being done right now in Ashton Center and married housing. \n"In our experiment, we are making signs to save water at the sink and limit your shower," Ilyas said. "Our last monthly bill was $350,000. Our mission is to conserve, bring this number down and inform students."\nWhile water is not a problem now, at the turn of the century IU considered leaving Bloomington because of a lack of it. IU had a problem with the influx of students that came in each year in the fall. There was trouble serving both the water and electrical needs.\n"They didn't believe they would have enough water to serve the city," said project overseer Leigh Walter. "If you don't have water, you can't have a college. But Lake Monroe has taken care of that problem."\nThis is the second stage of a water conservation project, the first of which had been completed a few years ago.\n"As far as the dorms themselves, all of those have low-flow shower heads and toilets as part of a project they did a couple years back," Walter said.\nJunior Melissa Berz agrees with the physical plant's efforts.\n"I think that there are many little things that added together could really make a difference," Berz said. "I think that if there were enough people who contributed to water conservation, it could help reduce some of the costs."\n-- Contact staff writer Cecelia Wolford at cwolford@indiana.edu.