Water
Introduction
Water is, without a doubt, one of the most important elements to life as we know it. Often it is viewed as such an insignificant open resource that we fail to realize how vital it really is. It is true that water makes up the majority of Earth's surface area, but a rather small percentage of that area is usable fresh water. Ground water is one of our most precious resources, and its degradation often goes unnoticed by the public. Once ground water is polluted, there are very few methods of cleaning it besides filtration. We intend to measure how Marlboro College takes care of this resource.
Waste Water
Treatment
Looking out over the front hill over Plant Operations, one may notice curious tarp-like green squares with pipes sticking out of them. Marlboro College spent about $2.5 million on those green squares and pipes. That amount was nearly twice the amount necessary to fulfill onsite waste water treatment regulations. We use an AdvanTex™-RX effluent sewer system. The company advertises an over twenty-year product life, and only needs to be pumped out once every twelve years. The filtered effluent leaves the treatment process cleaner than much larger municipal waste water treatment plants. The product is clear and odorless. Our treatment system is designed to treat up to 15,000 gallons of waste water per day.
Waste water percolates both through and between thetextilemedia, whose complex fiber structure offers an excellent medium for microbes to aerobically convert ammonia to nitrates. Other conditions exist, too, that result in further nitrogen reduction. The filtrate recirculates back to the high-carbon, low-oxygen (anoxic) environment of the processing tank, which is ideal for microbes that reduce nitrates to nitrogen gas. Harmless nitrogen gas is then released freely back into the atmosphere.
Consumption
Total consumption
Consumption by building
Efficiency of Use
Personal Use
Appliances
- The washers are small and old,
- The shower-heads are non-aerating and also old.
- There is one aerating faucet head that I know of on campus. It's in the Campus Center gym shower.
Hydrogeology of Marlboro
- Marlboro is on a high-slope, increasing the potential of water erosion and silt depositing in streams.
- Runoff water is directed into ditches and fed into the small streams and the small wetland to the south of campus.
- Generally the soil is very permeable, and erosion is not a notable issue except in the sandy edges of pavement.
- The terrain is generally quite stable, because the hillsides have been largely left forested.
- The thinnest riparian buffer is between Moss Hollow Road and the southern quarter mile square wetland. It is about twenty yards from the road to the wetland.
- The second thinnest riparian buffer is about two hundred yards thick.
Wetlands
- Directly downhill from Marlboro College is the head of the Green River Watershed.
- Water from the Campus will flow into the Watershed, which contains a quarter of a square mile of wetlands directly south.
- South-east from the college is about two miles of south-flowing intermittent streams.
- To the West, flowing between two steep 250' slopes is a perennial stream that flows South.
Position Within Watershed
- Marlboro, sits within the Green River Watershed on a high elevation above the head of the Watershed that goes south towards Massachusetts.
- The Green River Watershed begins in Marlboro and feeds into the Green river, draining over 88.9 square miles.
Water Runoff
Water Quality Data
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