This article was originally published in the Outdoors print issue of The Daily Utah Chronicle, originally in stands on September 23, 2024. It has not been updated and some information may be out of date.
As one of the driest states in the nation, water conservation is a constant issue in Utah. Various departments at the University of Utah, including landscape maintenance, Red Butte Gardens, sustainability and energy and project design and construction are involved with handling water runoff and irrigation on campus.
The Daily Utah Chronicle spoke with members of these divisions to discuss stormwater capture and use at the U.
Mitigating Stormwater Flow
Lissa Larson is the associate director of sustainability and energy on campus. She explained the goal is not to just “store a bunch of water and then reuse it,” but to “slow down the runoff and increase infiltration.” Infiltration refers to the process of water from precipitation moving into the soil.
Sam Jensen-Augustine, director of design and construction at the U, said they try to create “buffer zones” to direct rainwater into the landscape rather than flooding spaces with water. He described these “buffer zones” as “little dams that slow the water.”
“We actually look to direct our rainwater into the landscape … so we can locally infiltrate that storm water coming through and create this sort of beautiful oasis through campus,” Jensen-Augustine said.
Larson said this approach allows the U to “recharge the aquifer and reduce irrigation needs.”
In addition to the buffer zones, Jensen-Augustine said there are other basins on campus that “create a pond,” allowing the stormwater to infiltrate locally rather than go out to the Great Salt Lake.
Jenni Oman is project manager of planning, design and construction at the U. She said one of their goals is implementing sustainable options such as rain gardens to get stormwater “back into the ground” rather than being lost into the city system.
“The goal for those systems is if you can get it into the ground, it’s a little bit better for everyone than just rushing it downhill,” Oman said.
One example of a buffer zone is the Landscape Lab in upper campus. In an email statement, Sarah Hinners, director of the Center for Ecological Planning and Design, explained the purpose of the lab.
“[The Landscape Lab] captures storm runoff that would otherwise gush out of a storm drain into Red Butte Creek,” Hinners said. “Instead, that water soaks into the soil of the landscape, nourishing plants and recharging aquifers with water that is cleaned as it passes through plant roots and soil.”
Hinners highlighted two main advantages of the Landscape Lab’s position.
“First, it offsets irrigation water use by sustaining moist areas in the soil to support plants naturally. And second, by recharging groundwater, that rainfall can sustain the creek more gradually and gently, via underground pathways rather than destructive storm drain flood events. Basically, it mimics the hydrology of a natural landscape,” she said.
Sue Pope, the U’s landscape and open space manager, said soil moisture is difficult to maintain in drought conditions.
“It’s just very hard when we have these droughts where we cut back water, then the ground gets very hard and just doesn’t absorb water how we’d like it to, so it eventually runs off,” Pope said.
Jensen-Augustine also addressed this issue, discussing the importance of moisture in the summer to allow for runoff that fills Utah reservoirs.
“We need wet summers so we can get a lot of moisture into the soil, so the snow runoff doesn’t just run off and not refill our reservoirs,” Jensen-Augustine said.
Stormwater Collection
Jensen-Augustine said the U has not collected rainwater until recently, as state law prohibited collecting rainwater until 2010. Utah Code 73-3-1.5 now allows for a maximum of 2,500 gallons of rainwater to be collected per parcel of land.
“That sounds like a lot of water, but it’s really not,” Jensen-Augustine said. “We have stored on campus culinary water from springs and wells well over millions of gallons of water that supply backup water for the hospital and other locations. The amount of rainwater we’re allowed to collect really isn’t a practical amount to use for the university.”
Larson said rather than storing water, they are focused on how to let it infiltrate.
Oman said the university’s approach to collecting water involves both “detention” and “retention.”
“We’ve developed infrastructure over the years, so most of the new buildings are doing some kind of detention, which is saving water to be put into the system later, or retention to keep water on site fully until it evaporates or infiltrates into the ground,” Oman said.
One example is Gardner Commons, where stormwater from the roof is collected and fed into surrounding plants.
“The Gardner Commons project, on the south side, we are collecting some of that rooftop [water] and it’s going down into a holding area that circulates into the plantings that are on that side,” Pope said. “You’ll see kind of like a pond structure on the one side, and that’s where it’s held for a little bit. It reaches a certain level, and then it’ll slowly circulate into the plantings.”
Sustainability Efforts
Pope said they receive funding every year to make the U’s irrigation systems more efficient, and they conduct water audits to track these goals. Jensen-Augustine said the university has allocated $200,000-$400,000 a year for the past three or four years towards the goal of a more water wise landscape.
Larson said technology makes it easier to reduce water use, through advanced tracking and automatically shutting water off.
“It can automatically shut off when there’s a leak. That way, you’re not just wasting water because a valve or sprinkler head was broken, for example,” Larson said.
The Waterwise for U program involved several initiatives intended to reduce water use at the U. The installation of WeatherTRAK smart controllers was one part of the program with a particularly big impact, reducing outdoor water usage by 25%.
“[WeatherTRAK] looks at valves and measures water flow in our irrigation systems directly because if you can’t measure flow, all you can do is see the time of irrigation, which doesn’t tell you there was a massive leak in that time or that the water going out of that system was way more than normal,” Larson said.
“[WeatherTRAK will] say how much it rained, and then it’ll adjust the amount of irrigation we need,” Jensen-Augustine said. “[It tracks] high amounts of wind that will blow the irrigation water all over the place and not onto the plants, and won’t irrigate at those times.”
Another form of updated technology is the choice of more efficient water-using systems.
“We required high efficiency fixtures and toilets in all of our new buildings beyond what the building code requires,” Jensen-Augustine said.
When it comes to older buildings on campus, Larson said tearing them down and rebuilding entirely can sometimes be the more sustainable option.
“When you’re tearing down an older building that may have leaks, may have older fixtures in it that require more water, that can be part of that sustainability shift too,” Larson said. “When you’re going through and replacing it, you’re actually decreasing the amount of water used to operate that space.”
Oman said the department is also currently conducting a study of the campus stormwater system to better evaluate what could be improved.
“We’re mapping what are called the trunk lines, so the bigger lines on campus,” Oman said. “We’re not necessarily going to capture every single pipe that stormwater goes into, but our goal is to capture the detention, retention spots and the larger system to see where we’re deficient and where we can add improvements.”
Reducing outdoor water usage is not just a goal of the department, it is also required by state law. H.B. 121, passed in 2022, mandates that state government facilities such as the U measure their water irrigation and reduce water use by 25% by 2026.
Larson said the U’s overall water use for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2020 “actually decreased by 13%, and that’s total water use not accommodating for the number of people on campus, square footage or anything.”
Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to report “rogue” sprinklers by calling U Facilities’ Customer Service Center at 801-581-7221 or tagging @UofUFM on X, with a photo and location of the issue using hashtag #Usavewater.
Cultural Impacts
Larson said she has noticed a cultural shift regarding water conservation in recent years as people become more mindful of the need to save water.
“We’ve seen that as a society, and especially here in the Salt Lake region, people are just more mindful of water use,” Larson said. “It’s very nice to see the baseline of what we want to use when it comes to water overall as a community going down.”
Hinners said the Landscape Lab has had cultural impacts, transforming “never used” turf into a place with a social utility.
“[It is] a space with paths, stepping stones, benches, and flat rocks to sit on, a mix of sun and shade and generally provides lots of spaces that are pleasant for people to hang out,” Hinners said.
Larson said as campus development continues, there is an effort to promote these spaces of community.
“There’s just a lot more consciousness around taking ownership of this space and making it a great, sustainable place,” Larson said. “It’s really rewarding to walk around and see those little pockets of community around each building with places to sit.”
