Email: info@performainc.com
  Phone: (920)336-9929
  Fax: (920)336-2899

Correctional Facilities

How to Plan for Reducing Water Consumption
Thursday, October 21, 2010


For those in charge of building correctional facilities, you understand the looming budgetary crisis that is at the forefront of every decision made within the facility. There is no doubt that by implementing environmentally friendly practices and technologies within the building design future operational costs will decrease and operators will be able to run their facilities within budget and be able to invest in security and rehabilitative measures.

But making a correctional facility more environmentally friendly is a challenging task when taking into account security, regulatory restrictions and the 24-hour occupancy levels and usage needs. One specific problem is water consumption.

From showers, laundry, kitchens and landscaping, large amounts of water are consumed within prison facilities. According to Supply Link, the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, Calif., housing 4,000 inmates and 1,300 support staff, uses over 290 million gallons of water per year. The cost: $1,900,000. Here are some tips on how to minimize consumption.

Go Tech
By implementing PC-based water systems, security is able to control individual or group plumbing fixtures in a cell or cells, group showers or individual showers to reduce and manage water usage. Also, using treated, recovered water gathered from rain and air handler condensation for toilet flushing will reduce the consumption of potable water. Due to Calif. Governor's Arnold Schwarzenegger's state of emergency declaration on water shortage in 2009, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) implemented flush meters in many of the institutions across the state. The buildings that used them saw an average savings of 27 percent annually.

Improve Fixtures
North Carolina's Butner Federal Prison, the first LEED-certified correctional institution in the United States, uses low-flow plumbing fixtures, like toilets, urinals and shower heads, to save on water consumption. San Mateo County in California has reduced their water consumption by as much as 20 percent by installing these efficient plumbing fixtures.

"Green" the Landscaping
If the facility is located in a hot, dry climate, reduce outdoor watering by planting drought-tolerant native plants. Construct the recreation field out of synthetic grass and/or recycled tires. Harvest water by using a rain barrel, which collects and stores rain water runoff from roofs or gutters in order to water outside greenery. Or insert a swale like The Women's Garden Project created for Evergreen Corrections Center in British Columbia, Canada. Swales are shallow, low depressions in the ground, lined with trees. They collect stormwater, infiltrating the surrounding soil and cleansing the water as it becomes absorbed.

To learn more about these water-saving methods, view an article by Corrections.com.
If you have more to say on this topic, create a comment below; we'd like to hear from you.

 

Bookmark and Share
<< Back
Name:
Comment: