Our project site has man-made on-site ponds which we use for irrigation and any run-off goes back into the ponds so we do not use any city potable water supply. Would the ponds be considered a natural surface as they are man-made? All irrigation water supply comes directly from the ponds. Would this qualify us for 100% reduction?
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Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
September 15, 2010 - 2:11 pm
That sounds a lot like a rainwater retention system to me Paul. You're taking rainwater that otherwise would have run off your property into the storm sewer, storing it, and then using it in lieu of potable water to irrigate the property. If that is your sole source of irrigation water, I'd say you qualify for the 100% reduction for this credit, and may want to look into SSc6 as well. Nice work!
Paul C
164 thumbs up
September 30, 2010 - 10:05 am
I recently learned our ponds also tap into wells (a natural subsurface source) incase the water line needs to be brought up. I am able to calculate the baseline irrigation amount but how would I go about calculating the amount of water harvested by the retention pond vs. how much is supplied by the well unless I metered the well? I also had a question as to if the same pond provides for other surrounding building irrigation systems, would this be impacted by the project boundaries as they cannot overlap one another or is there a way to allow this if I were to pursue LEED EBOM on the other buildings in the future?
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
October 15, 2010 - 4:51 pm
Paul, with the multiple-building question I would check out the new campus guidance just out from USGBC. Check LEED Resources on their site.I would agree, you need to have some way of knowing what comes out of the well.