Students walking to Altman, Taylor or Babcock halls after a late night at the Gray Center often run into the nuisance of flying water from the sprinkler system.
The sprinklers water the grass between Hazelrigg Student Union and the Gray Center between 10-11 p.m.
Last week, rain clouds covered central Nebraska, yet the sprinklers were still on during the rain. Is HC knowingly wasting water with this practice?
"Maintenance installed rain sensors. They're in the process of doing it right now. Some of them don't have them yet, but a lot of them do," said Meg Smith, member of HC's Local Global initiative.
Over the past few years, campus groups like Local Global and SEAC, which introduced Trayless Tuesday/Thursday, have been creating awareness of campus water conservation. HC faculty and students have responded with varying results.
Tony Sheperd, Sodexo general manager, has seen students using fewer trays at meals.
"I have noticed that I rarely use a tray anymore," Shepard said.
From 2006-2009, HC cut total water consumption nearly in half. But the cost of water in 2009 was still about 66 percent of what it cost at the 2006 level of consumption.
HC purchases water from Hastings Utilities, with one well location near Lynn Farrell Arena for watering the track and apartments and another well closer to main campus.
"They're starting to build more water treatment plants, so they start varying those rates because they have to pay for that," Ruzicka said.
The well near the arena existed before HC bought the land and was grandfathered into the contract with the utilities plant. Ruzicka said if the water table at that well dropped, drilling deeper would not be a feasible option.
"We had that down, one month, and our water bill was, like, $4,000," Ruzicka said.
Steve Cogley at Hastings Utilities said the cost of a new well is up to $400,000 dollars.
"Things that can affect the cost of water is when we do capital construction, like water mains. We had a three percent increase (in cost per cubic foot of water)," Cogley said.
On campus, practices that raise the cost and consumption of water are laundry, flushing toilets, showers, and sprinklers.
"I don't advocate not taking showers, but taking shorter showers. Mostly being aware of when you use water," Smith said.
