FEATURE Blazing trails in water resiliency
Duke develops future best practices in water
management for campus utilities.
Daniel Allison, Senior Environmental Planner and Business Development Manager,
Sustainable Water

Duke University’s stormwater reclamation pond.

Duke University is well-known for many things. Its five national championships in NCAA men’s basketball, nationally recognized medical school and multitude of scholars (including nine Nobel laureates) are just a few things that come to mind.

With the recent completion of a new campus water supply project and aggressive future plans to enhance campus water resiliency, the university is now turning heads in another category: sustainable water management in district energy systems.

After nearly two years of con-
struction, the university completed
its innovative stormwater reclama-
tion pond this spring. This pond will
not only offset the environmental
impacts of campus stormwater
runoff but also serve as a primary
makeup source for Duke’s district
utility systems. The pond is expected
to reduce the campus potable water
footprint by as much as 100 million
gal annually – nearly 50 percent of
the total campus heating and cool-
ing demand for water, i.e., in cooling
towers and boilers.

With the project now in its commissioning phase, the university has not stopped thinking about water resiliency and environmental stewardship. Taking the lead from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., Duke is now investigating how campus-scale wastewater reclamation can complement its new stormwater reclamation system.

A NEED FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER
MANAGEMENT

Duke’s main campus, located
in Durham, N.C., is no stranger to
water stress and drought. In 2007,
Durham’s hydraulic service area
witnessed some of the worst drought
conditions ever recorded. Over a two-
year period, North Carolina experi-
enced record-setting heat waves and
witnessed some of the driest months
ever recorded in state history. Nearly
every county in North Carolina was
affected by the drought, and 38 dif-
ferent water service providers were
forced to issue water use restrictions.

WHEN DUKE SEARCHED FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO LESSEN THE IMPACT OF DROUGHT, THE CONCEPT OF A CAMPUS POND FEEDING CENTRAL UTILITY PLANTS WAS BORN.

With Lake Michie Reservoir levels 14 ft below capacity and the Little River nearly 26 ft lower than typical high water levels, the city of Durham issued a “Stage IV – Severe” mandatory water conservation restriction in December 2007. The restriction set out to reduce daily water demands by 30 percent throughout the city, with all businesses required to participate. Duke’s campus was not exempt from these restrictions. Despite drastic cuts in extraneous water uses, the university struggled to reduce campus water demands without