FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Fort Carson's Net Zero water conservation efforts brought the installation front and center at the 2014 Annual Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Awards presented during a ceremony in the Pentagon Auditorium Wednesday.
Installation Management Command recognized 21 individuals from six different installations as winners for fiscal 2013 in the categories of energy efficiency and energy management, innovation and new technology, renewable energy, alternative financing, water conservation and energy program effectiveness.
A previous winner in the energy efficiency category, this year Fort Carson put its best foot forward, high?lighting significant strides it has made in reducing water consumption to meet Net Zero water conservation goals. U.S. Army Garrison Fort Carson Commander Col. Joel D. Hamilton and Don Phillips, engineering tech?nician, Operations and Maintenance Division, Directorate of Public Works, received the award during the Pentagon ceremony.
"Fort Carson achieved these water reductions without limiting anyone's use of water," said Mark Hunsicker, Directorate of Public Works Operations and Maintenance Division chief. "We ensure that our military and community get every bit of water they need for their missions and comfort. We achieved the potable water reductions through large-scale projects focusing on efficiency and reuse of reclaimed water."
Three major initiatives, a reclaimed water expansion project, postwide water fixture replacements and converting to a smart irrigation system, will save the installation about 215 million gallons per year, the equivalent of more than 40 percent of its annual potable water use -- a significant bump toward Net Zero water objectives.
The post's reclaimed water system expansion project nearing completion is the installation's largest-scale Net Zero water initiative to date. Cheyenne Shadows Golf Club has used reclaimed water from Fort Carson's onsite sewage treatment plant for irrigation since the 1970s.
Through the expansion project, turf areas on post including Iron Horse Park and the Fort Carson sports complex, will transition to reclaimed water irrigation as well. This effort alone will reduce potable water used for irrigation by nearly 80 million gallons per year, saving $415,000 in annual potable water costs. The desired outcome is to expand this system even further and use this cheaper reclaimed water to irrigate other large, priority turf areas.
On the water fixture front, Fort Carson contracted with an energy savings performance contractor (ESPC) to replace inefficient older fixtures such as urinals and toilets while also installing low-flow showerheads and aerators on sinks in post facilities.
The contractor was selected to assist in accomplishing energy and water savings projects without upfront capital from the Army. The post pays the ESPC for the completed work based on the annual energy and water savings related to the projects.
The water fixture replacements, which began in fiscal 2013 and will end in early fiscal 2015, included swapping out thousands of water fixtures in 133 buildings, such as Soldier barracks. The $2.9 million initiative included retrofitting 3,756 toilets to 1.28 gallons per flush (gpf); 6,437 aerators to .5 gallons per minute (gpm); 3,394 showerheads to 1 gpm showerheads and 281 urinals to .125 gpf urinals.
The initiative is anticipated to reduce overall water consumption by about 85 million gallons of water on post and save more than $423,000 annually in utility costs.
The final major water savings came from the installation of a Weather TRAK computerized irrigation control system, which uses global positioning system technology and weather stations to apply the right amount of water based on real time weather conditions.
Weather Trak was installed on Fort Carson in fiscal 2012; however, was used extensively for the first time in fiscal 2013. The system consists of 135 weather clocks located across the cantonment in irrigated areas that download GPS information from the Internet collected by 36 weather stations on post (one per square mile).
The evapotranspiration-measuring system then calculates how much water is needed to replace what was lost from the day's weather conditions. Due to the regional drought in fiscal 2013, Fort Carson relied heavily on this new system to help dial back the amount of water applied to the turf when significant rainfall was received. This system was a key player in ensuring the 30 percent summer water reductions were met. When operating under normal seasonal conditions, the system is anticipated to save the installation more than 50 million gallons per year in irrigation water.
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