Paul Ferri, Environmental Compliance Analyst, takes measurements of the Fenton River. (Photo Courtesy UConn Office of Environmental Policy)
In 2005, a quarter mile stretch of the Fenton River ran dry.
“Essentially what happened was a very intense drought that year,” Director of UConn’s Utility Operations and Energy Management Stanley Nolan said.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted a study that determined the cause was not only the harsh conditions, but the University of Connecticut’s pumping for water. It reported “The University believes that withdrawals from its well fields required to meet seasonal peak demands concurrently with extreme dry conditions in the summer of 2005, contributed to the drying of the stretch of the Fenton River.”
Map of the Fenton River Watershed Forest and Trail Conservation. (Photo Courtsey UConn Today)
To try to further protect and prevent an instance like this from happening again, UConn committed to several restock and conservation efforts, according to DEP.
In 2014 the university consumed 465,478,000 gallons, up slightly from 2013, but still nearly 84,000,000 gallons less (-15.5%) than was consumed in 2005 (542,351,000 gallons), despite a 23% growth in the user population since that time, according to the Office of Environmental Protection.
UConn’s water supply still comes from the Fenton River well field, but it also includes the Willimantic River and soon the Shenipsit Lake Reservoir, Nolan said. These three alternatives way to bring water to the university will help alleviate the burden on any one.
To further alleviate the use of natural water, UConn started building its own central utility plant, a system that uses reused water for the university’s cooling towers. One of the big changes made to the plant was the use of reclaimed water– water from showers, toilets, etc.– that is cleaned and used again in the reclaim facility that became operational in 2013.
“The university built the plant to be able to do this so we use less water, since we are recycling, we are reusing it,” Nolan said. It also means new, clean drinking water is used more efficiently.
Nolan said that if the Fenton River drying event were to ever come close to happening again, his department would rest the Fenton and then the Willimantic well field as much as possible. But he assures neither well field will come close to what happen in 2005 because the university takes measures to converse water on a regular, proactive basis.
“You do small things on a constant basis to make things better…It’s a continuous process, it’s not something you do one time,” Nolan said.
In small ways, Nolan’s department conserves water throughout campus every day. It will ask dining halls to use paper plate supplies instead of spending water cleaning dishes, cook meals that use less water, install low-flow shower heads and replace old water heaters with new instantaneous ones.
Secondary effects of the drought include how and when construction is done. Typically construction sites will spray water to control dust that is dangerous to workers.