For our Macaulay Honors College Seminar Three class, The Science of New York, each group has been tasked with designing an earth-friendly program to improve the flow of rainwater (or put it to better use) on the Brooklyn College campus. At the end of the class, we are going to choose one program to submit to the EPA Campus RainWorks Challenge.
The three members of our group are Anna Kozlova, Daniel Scarpati and Trevor Lee. Each of us has come up with a separate idea/program to improve the rainwater system at Brooklyn College, and we hope to combine the best aspects of each program and come up with one final design by the second week of October.
DANIEL’S IDEA:
There’s a small raised block of cement outside of Whitehead Hall on the BC campus. It’s in front of the building and behind the wooden seating area where most people spend time eating lunch and working on group assignments. This spot is out of the way (not in direct walking-traffic by any means) and currently unused. All that resides there now is a small patch of grass and a family of feral street cats.
Daniel’s planned rainwater harvesting site–right outside of Whitehead Hall and behind the wooden plank seating area.
With the amount of rain the falls onto the roof of Whitehead Hall (over 13,750 square feet), this would be a perfect place to implement a type of rainwater storage system. Whether it be rain barrels or a storage tank, this collected water could be used to soak the surrouning trees and grass and possible even power the batteries that the BC campus golf carts run on (via the design depicted in the following embedded video, which was found by Anna).
Whatever the use, this rain storage device would prevent excess water from pouring onto the surrounding pavement or from backing up the drains and pipes around and in Whitehead Hall.
ANNA’S IDEA:
For my idea, I wanted to focus on the rainwater collected by Whitehead Hall. My focus, rather than direct rainwater collection, would be to redirect water away from the sewage system through a possible downspout disconnection. With the addition of a little extra plumbing, it maybe be possible to redirect water flow to the grassy area on the upper right of the image Daniel used . In a soil and plan rich environment, rainwater would be kept from possibly overwhelming existing water systems
In that particular area, we could plant a rain garden with vegetation suitable to local campus-friendly animals such as squirrels and certain species of birds. We could do quite a bit of research on vegetation that requires the least maintenance, and provides the most benefit to the local area in terms of aesthetics and it’s animal-friendly environment. The garden could serve as a community piece, and would be a nice sight for children playing in the nearby park.
TREVOR’S IDEA:
The problem is when rain falls, a lot of that water is going to waste. Instead of letting the water run onto the cement, where there are no tunnels, gutters, or pipes near the grounds, we can make an apparatus that either collects the water to filter and use for later or make a simple model to use that water to generate electricity. Also, some of that water can be channelled to the constantly destroyed and paved grass. That would make for a healthier and more beautiful campus.
Also, as many of you may know, the walkway from the W.E.B to the West Quad building slants down towards the tennis court. All the water that falls is going towards the raised cement that surround the tennis court. Maybe we can make a gutter, to collect all the water at strategically placed and positioned areas so that we can maximize efficiency and minimize cost. Maybe even a gutter than connects to the pipe would work as well.
Some problems are in might get in the way if an apparatus is built to collect the water. A lot of students do go near that building to use it for various reasons, such as club. We can counter that by putting gutters in place, or pipes. But as well, construction can get in the way. It would be best if it was quickly built during a weekend, holiday, or some day where not many students go to school. Building a gutter, or tunnel to collect the rain water that falls down the slanted path near the tennis court might take long. One can build a small one, and then just have a pipe that can connect it to a hose on the grass to water the grass.
The section of Brooklyn College campus I intend to work with.
Although these ideas/programs may seem different, we hope to be able to create a program that we can all agree on based on the best aspects of each of our individual assignments.
