Reclaimed Water Treatment Plant (RWTP)

The RWTP takes the final treated wastewater from the City of Amherst's wastewater treatment plant, treats the water for use in the boilers, then feeds process water to the UMass steam plant. This alternative to using potable town water has resulted in big savings.

The plant was installed at a cost of $1.8 million and has a rated output of 250 gallons/minute. To commence the disinfected treatment water process, a chlorinated effluent is sent to a sand filter bank then to several final cartridge filters. These cartridge filters remove fine particles. The central feature of the plant, a bank of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, filters the effluent. Lastly, the treated water is stored in an outside tank until the steam plant can use it. Typically, the steam plant uses the reclaimed water that very same day.

The effluent from the wastewater treatment plant is of better quality then the town water for industrial purposes, which results in the reduction of boiler "blowdowns" by about 10%. This reduction in boiler blow has resulted in roughly a 2% fuel reduction at the steam plant. This water conservation effort is expected to reclaim approximately 9,000,000 cubic feet of water with cost savings of approximately $300,000 for water and $100,000 for fuel.

Low Flow Water Fixtures

The retrofit of campus toilets, urinals, and faucets targeted both academic buildings and residence halls. Some 3,400 toilets, 771 urinals, and 4,200 faucets have undergone retrofitting. Piping was also modified to comply with standard trade practices. The flush valves on urinals were replaced with flushometer valves, reducing water consumption from 1.5 to 1.0 gallons of water per flush. Lastly, the faucets include tamper resistant flow restrictors and adapters. The total water savings for all retrofits, including toilets, urinals, showers, faucets, and water heating, will average about 10.5 million cubic feet of water annually, with associated cost savings of about $400,000.

Replacing or Re-engineering "one time water pass through equipment"

Walk-in coolers, distillers, sterilizers, and Food Services equipment were re-designed so that reductions in water use would be achieved from process cooling, scientific equipment, and kitchen services. The major changes will be in the steam sterilizer (autoclave) condensate tempering, the replacement of laboratory stills with new reverse osmosis systems, Food Services' dish machines, garbage disposals, and pass-through water cooled equipment. These alterations will approximately result in about five million cubic feet of water savings as well as 180,875 kWh in energy savings.

Summary of Savings

Due to the advanced water treatment product line at the RWTP and the additional water conservation efforts, UMass Amherst estimated a reduction of potable water consumption of 25 million cubic feet or 187,250,000 gallons. Using fiscal year FY04 as the baseline, the campus consumed 59,935,800 cubic feet of water. Potable water consumption in FY 2006 was 38,284,470 cubic feet. The campus realized close to a 36% reduction in potable water consumption, 21 million cubic feet, from FY 04. UMass anticipates it will reach the projected savings as all three projects will be fully operational for FY 2007.