During our current drought conditions, Tom Flood, superintendent of landscaping and grounds, explains Elon’s position on irrigating the campus lawns and gardens:
Less than one third of the nearly 200 acres (less than 70 acres) of campus landscape that we manage is irrigated. Fortunately, Elon has been farsighted in the development of its irrigation infrastructure. Currently more than 85 percent of the irrigated areas are supplied from our own ponds, Lake Mary Nell, Lake Verona and the South Campus pond. The primary water source for these ponds is storm water runoff from buildings, walks and roads and springs in the ponds. Therefore, run-off from the irrigation is not wasted, but recaptured in the ponds.
Because we capture storm water, the lake levels can rise quickly when we do get the occasional shower. We also have the ability to transfer water between Lake Mary Nell and Lake Verona in order to help balance the lake levels and capitalize on the collection of storm water run-off. Lastly, two of these ponds also have a deep well which can provide a small amount of water if necessary, but we seldom use them.
Less than 15% of the irrigated area is supplied with city water. We have significantly reduced the amount of irrigating that we do in these areas since Burlington announced their voluntary water restriction. My primary concern in these areas is to keep the trees and the plants alive. The trees and the landscape are both a multi-million dollar asset that needs to be preserved and one that makes our campus environment more livable. The trees are especially hard hit at the moment; just take a drive through the countryside to see how many of the native trees are dying or seriously drought stressed. Interestingly, I have lost mostly Oaks so far this summer, our urban forest is a tough environment for any plant! We are working on plans to decrease our use of city water for irrigation with the eventual goal of eliminating its use entirely.
From an environmental perspective, our use of storm water for irrigation is both sustainable and responsible. When storm water is captured in the lakes, sediment is allowed to precipitate out, reducing the sedimentation of native streams and rivers. Further, pollutants and nutrients in the storm water are tied up, used or bio-degraded by the aquatic plants, rather than being transferred directly into the rivers. Lastly, the water used for irrigation is further cleansed by the filtration of the soil and biodegradation prior to entering part of the groundwater system.
This summer we also received significant funding to improve the efficiency of irrigation system by replacing all our outdated controls systems with a satellite and web based system that enables us to increase our water efficiency and decrease our water consumption through various means. This system also includes a weather station that will shut off irrigation in the event of rain and calculated operational times based upon the current evapo-transpiration rate of the plants. Even so, our irrigation heads do get knocked and misaligned, and we count on folks to let us know, if we don’t see it ourselves, when this happens and we are watering the walks!
I hope this helps advance your understanding of the entire situation and demonstrate our commitment and efforts towards campus sustainability.
Superintendent of Landscaping and Grounds