Students and staff find ways to conserve water
In response to the California drought, El Camino staff and students are incorporating water saving techniques into their daily routines.
The campus has been proactive in water conservation for years, even before California went into a drought.
“We started reclaiming the water we use, six to eight years ago.” Tom Brown, director of facilities, said. “We reclaimed (many) fields including the baseball field. The stadium is artificial turf as well and will be using reclaimed water (for plant irrigation).”
Brown said that the school has made strides to cut down on water usage in the past few years. In 2012, the campus using 41 million gallons of water. In the following year, 2013, the school dropped it down to 39 million gallons. Then in 2014, the school used just 27 million gallons of water.
The new stadium being built will have a synthetic field, that does not require much water to keep the field in top condition. While the current soccer field is already synthetic, Brown said.
Some faculty members use similar water-saving techniques when they are at home.
“I recycle grey water to water the lawn rather than letting it go down the drain,” Margaret Steinberg, anatomy and physiology professor, said.
Steinberg said that recycled grey water is easy to do if you know how to treat it. You can get biodegradable soap from Walmart, she said.
“I wash my dishes in biodegradable soap,” Steinberg said. “I wash the dishes and dump the water on the lawn.”
Steinberg said that she is also thinking of taking out her front lawn and putting in drought tolerant plants.
Sue Lim, 21, chemical engineering major, said that she notices a lot of differences in water consumption between America and Korea.
“When I’m driving I see a lot of sprinklers (on). (People) don’t turn it off for a long time,” Lim said.
EC is also using drip irrigation. All of the plants by the Social Sciences Building are drip irrigation, Brown said. He explained that drip irrigation works by having it not run off the sidewalk into the gutter.
EC also uses drought tolerant plants in the planting beds throughout the campus.
“We’ve taken the landscape and included drought tolerant plants,” Brown said.
With every project that they do, Brown said that they’re identifying ways to bring in drought tolerant plants to conserve water.
“This college is a 126-acre campus. We try to keep it looking nice,” Brown said.
