Cuesta College reducing water usage by 25 percent
The students with the stick and debris sculpture.
All of the campus’ landscaping will be impacted in some way
Cuesta College say that they are making significant changes to their landscaping and facilities in response to California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent mandate to reduce water usage by 25 percent of the college’s 2013 calendar-year water usage.
Both the San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles campuses are undergoing various landscaping changes that will save an estimated 4.99 to 6.52 million gallons of water annually.
“All landscaping will be impacted in some way,” said Cuesta College Director of Facilities Services Planning and Capitol Projects Terry Reece. “For some areas, it will be as little as putting the vegetation into a stressed mode; in other areas, it will be a full removal and re-landscaping with either low or no water landscaping.”
Currently, many of the affected landscaped areas are turning brown due to the reduced use water. Cuesta said that they will begin replacing some areas with wood bark; other areas will have drought–resistant plants installed, and nearly all of the athletic complexes will be affected. The landscaping projects are reportedly expected to be complete in the coming weeks.
“The campus will look different and yet maintain its current complex landscaping motif,” said Reece. “We expect that someone coming to Cuesta College will not feel like the two campuses are in a drought situation; instead, it will just appear that the campuses have been landscaped with plants other than grass.”
Additionally, Cuesta said that a total of 120 toilets and 34 urinals are being replaced by the end of June on both campuses with low-flow versions, saving the District 2.25 gallons per flush, and an air cooled chiller was also recently installed on the North County Campus, dramatically reducing the usage of a larger water cooled chiller.
The reductions will not save the district any funds. As a part of the California State Water Project, the district pays an annual set fee for its water allowance. “There are no refunds for water savings nor is there a way to buy more water if we exceed our allowance,” explained Reece. “The district is saving water in order to be a responsible state organization and also comply with the recent reduction mandate.”
Continuing with the theme of water conservation – a group of Cuesta sculpture students recently installed two temporary outdoor projects on the SLO Campus to bring awareness to the CA drought. The projects were up for a couple days and consisted of two spherical forms – one was 6’ tall and crafted of wooden sticks and debris placed on green lawn. The other was a 5’ tall blue plaster ‘water drop’ placed on a dirt ground.
For more information, please call the Cuesta College Facilities Department at (805) 546-3100, ext. 2210.
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