An Analysis of Lewis University’s WaterprintThomas Cornes

Dr. Jerry Kavouras, Associate Professor of Biology

IntroductionFresh water is a resource that is becoming increasingly scarce. It is assumed that fresh water in Romeoville is plentiful due to Lake Michigan being so close.

Romeoville, and Lewis University, get their fresh water from wells in a heavily stressed aquifer system, according to the Illinois State Water Survey.

Water stress occurs when water is withdrawn from a source faster than it can be replenished. Lewis University must do its part. There are several small changes that our institution can make that will have a large impact on our waterprint. Waterprint is defined as the amount of water consumed throughout a day as direct water usage and as the water used to produce products consumed throughout the day.

Ultimately, a lower waterprint for Lewis University will mean the local aquifers can recharge faster and reduce the stress due to less water being drawn out.

PurposeThe goal of this project is to collect water usage data for Lewis University, determine the major users on campus, and develop a plan to reduce the amount of water used by campus.

Pre-program exit interview results•Work hours: too many or not what was expected•Poor orientation•Lack of communication between departments•Poor leadership •Benefit package

MethodsWater usage reports were collected from the

Romeoville Public Works Water Department for all buildings on campus that Lewis University pays a water bill. Reports were organized by month and building. The mean water usage per day was calculated.

SourcesEnvironmental Health, Science, and Policy |

OnEarth Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://archive.onearth.org/

Illinois State Water Survey - Home, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.isws.illinois.edu/

Romeoville Public Works. (n.d.). [Lewis University Water Consumption Report 10/2/14 - 10/2/15]. Unpublished raw data.

ConclusionNearly 8,179,400 gallons of fresh water was used by the residence halls during the year, or 68,216,196 pounds, or 17,054 four-thousand pound cars. Clearly, student residents are the major source of freshwater use at Lewis University.

The most effective way to decrease the school’s waterprint is to target water usage in the residence halls. By decreasing the water consumed by student residents, the school will save money as well reduce the stress on the aquifers it withdraws freshwater from. Then, the local aquifers will be recharged, the school will save on money, and the local wildlife will benefit from the replenished aquifers.

Observations

13,751,100 Gallons of water was used by Lewis during the time period studied. This is equivalent to the water used by 275,022 people bathing.

Shiel Hall: Shiel Hall average water use for the entire year was 4,885 gallons/day – in August 2015 it was 18,180 gallons/day.

The average water use for the month of August is 35,042 Gallons/day - so Shiel Hall used 51.8% of the total water used on campus in the month of August.

Results

RecommendationsCurrently, Lewis University is replacing washing machines with high efficiency versions, which will help decrease our waterprint.

Showers are the major source of water use in the residence halls – a reduction here will have the greatest impact on campus water use.

The Big Picture The ISWS reported that by 1980, heavy utilization of groundwater in Northeastern Illinois caused deep bedrock aquifers to decrease by more than 850 feet since the 1860’s. The water pressure aquifers exert on the land above has a direct effect on the elevation of the land above. When aquifers run dry, subsidence occurs (sinkholes).

Aquifer levels are directly affected by the amount of water all of us use everyday – Lewis University has the responsibility to help maintain our aquifers we all share and now is the time to start fulfilling this responsibility.

Figure 1. Components of an aquifer.1 – Level of Saturation2 – Bedrock Layer3 – Water Table

Figure 2. Fresh water used by Lewis University from October 2014 to October 2015. All fresh water was matched in volume by sewage. Sewage water costs more to pump than does fresh water. Data from Romeoville Public Works Water.

Figure 4. Geospatial data representing the location of all the nearby freshwater wells near Lewis University. Data extracted using the Illinois State Water Survey’s(ISWS) Geographic Information Systems software.

Figure 3. It is important to note that though Lewis University uses a relatively small amount of water in the grand scheme, we are still a part of a larger aquifer system – The Mississippi Watershed.