Our campus currently temporarily holds tanks of rainwater under our athletic fields, which collects runoff from the west side of campus, which slowly drains into the city’s sewer system through gravity pressure. By redirecting this water into intelligent solutions that help our campus and our city, we will reduce the impact of rainwater significantly. The water stored in these tanks will be redirected to water our community garden, which is currently watered by tap water. We have also come up with a large-scale project that involves partnering with the Department of Sanitation to fill up the street sweeper trucks with our campus’s stormwater, instead of the tap water they already use. Potentially, the city may be able to help pay for the pipelines and this partnership will help Brooklyn College deal with the cost of bringing a pipeline that will satisfy the sweeper truck’s tank of water. It can also be a model for many other recycled water sites.
The second part of our plan is to beautify our campus, whilst controlling the stormwater flow, using bioswales around pathways and around our athletic field. These bioswales will include plants, such as grass and flowers, and recycled pieces of porcelain, that will slow down and absorb water and which will reduce the costs of integrating this green solution onto our campus. The greenery around the west side of campus is limited in functionality, due to only grass being used, thus any improvement to these areas, such as adding a variety of plants, is beneficial. Our use of low maintenance, local plants will appeal to the facilities department as well as the student population.
The project space is centered on the West Side of the Brooklyn College campus, which contains an athletic field, gardens, a tennis court, and parking lots that thousands of Brooklyn College students and faculty use continuously throughout the year.
Rainwater conservation is one of the most important topics of our generation as society continues to use up resources; in California and many other places, there is a face of drought. This kind of threat can be faced anywhere, even in a heavily populated city like New York City. Thus, it is important to redirect and recycle rainwater and our other resources. Brooklyn College is a campus home to almost 17,000 students, who rely on the campus’s many facilities and spend a majority of the time on our beautiful campus. The west side of campus has newly undergone a renovation that has improved our athletic fields and several buildings. Our potential rainwater solutions, however, have largely been ignored with the large-scale construction projects. Our group’s plan is to integrate recycled water, from tanks already underneath the athletic field, to water our campus garden and to fill up New York City’s street sweeper tanks. Currently, the community garden is being watered with tap water and the street sweeper trucks also use water to fill up their tanks. This is an area with large opportunity for rainwater solutions. However, it is not just opportunity that fuels our plan – it is the significant benefits to our campus. We will be reducing our water cost and we will also build relationships with various members of our community through the construction of our recycled water site.
Placing bioswales in three different areas of our campus will aid to decrease pollutants, decrease run off, and help beautify Brooklyn College. Each of the three bioswales serve different purposes and will help Brooklyn College to enhance its green areas. The bioswales near the tennis courts will serve not only to make Brooklyn College more attractive but will efficiently serve to absorb the water flowing from the West Quad Building. The area around the athletic field is currently being used as area to simply place plants but bioswales will help to absorb rainwater. This in essence is beneficial for athletics but also for the college because less water will absorb into the track and will ultimately aid to better maintenance for the track. Finally, bioswales in areas near the parking lot serve to make the lot greener as well as reduce the amount of pollutants draining into the New York City sewage system.
Placing solar panels near the West End Building to draw water from under the athletic field benefits the Brooklyn College community because it will aid in watering the plants in the garden behind the field. This will save Brooklyn College a substantial amount of money and will allow the garden to be watered by rainwater instead of tap water. These solar panels are an innovative way to reduce cost and use rainwater in an effective and useful way. The project we have proposed, running pipes to draw water for the sanitation department, bioswales to reduce rain water run off and decrease pollution, and the solar panels which will reduce the cost of watering the gardens, are each feasible plans and will aid to making Brooklyn College’s green spaces more efficient and helpful to its students, facilities, and to New York City.
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