Irrigation Innovation for University Campus
Improved system increases safety, lowers maintenance costs and man hours
Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah requires a lot of water to care for its campus. Seventy-five acres of mostly NCAA playing fields were taking four man-hours every day just to maintain the secondary irrigation system’s filtering system.
Tiger Funk, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management, says the constant clearing of filters for the secondary watering system (tied into Cedar City’s secondary irrigation water system line), was taking a toll. “We had to check the filters every eight hours, which over a season, adds up.” And it wasn’t just the frequency—because the irrigation and filter components were housed underground for aesthetic reasons, OSHA required two employees every time they needed to clean a filter. “It was just getting to be too much,” Funk admitted. “Our teams are required to have recovery gear in place, use a spotter, and test the air every time they enter the vaults.” Man-hours were adding up.
The university wanted a change. In order to save overtime and money, they hired Watson Engineering of Cedar City, Utah, to help them find a solution. The objective? A system that required once-a-day service instead of the exhausting three times every day they were currently doing.
Funk had heard about a new filter that showed great promise for use with secondary water systems containing a lot of debris. Turns out that NCAA fields are not only susceptible to debris, but this type of lawn is finicky about total dissolved solids (TDS) and hardness, too. Tim Watson, Principal of Watson Engineering, helped with asking the right questions to choose the filtering system. “There was a lot of research to be done, but Watson helped us find a solution,” says Funk. “The new system takes out most of the debris for us, which saves us a lot of time, and ultimately, money.”
A second benefit? This system works seamlessly with the campus’s smart irrigation system. Just because their campus is large and they use a lot of water doesn’t mean they’re wasteful. “We live in a desert and water conservation is a big deal. This system … looks at wind speed, relative humidity, and inches of rain in the last 30 days. We use a lot of water, but this system allows us to be as efficient as possible. We use a lot less [water] than we would otherwise.”
Watson Engineering managed all the civil engineering and helped coordinate the project with Cedar City. The university budgeted $75,000 in 2017 to invest in the new system, and once the solution was engineered, Funk and his men got to work. The new filters took about 80 days to install, but the outcome has been life-changing for the maintenance workers.
When Funk recently visited with the groundskeeping team to ask whether their objectives have been met, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Staff is now able to sleep through the night because midnight trips for two to campus have been eliminated. Safety has increased because the new above-ground system virtually eliminates vault entries—and there’s no price that can be put on that.
Funk sees this system as a solution that could be adopted by others. “A lot of people could benefit from this innovation,” says Funk, “even if it’s not this specific filter. Large campuses, businesses, school districts, parks, and even homeowners—anyone or anywhere that uses secondary water for their irrigation needs. I don’t think [it’s a] unique situation at all. So many grounds crews are out at night because that’s when watering is required, and if there’s maintenance involved for secondary irrigation, this could save companies a lot of headache.”
Original Article Published by Municipal Water Leader Magazine
