Dr. Mohamad Attalla, Executive Director at F&S, responded to Dr. Ximing Cai, iWG Chair, on August 27, 2019, stating, "We will schedule a meeting with the Land and Water SWATeam to discuss options for achieving the recommendation."
For further information, please see Green Infrastructure.
See the transmittal of Water007 SeeClickFix recommendation.
Dear FY19 SWATeam members, As another academic year is about to begin, we want to first thank you for all of your help moving campus toward the goals outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). Each of the six SWATeams worked on multiple recommendations last year, and after careful evaluation by the iCAP Working Group (iWG), several recommendations are under consideration now at the appropriate campus units. Additionally, several prior SWATeam recommendations are continuing to show progress, such as the Solar Farm 2.0 project, which is likely to be approved by the Board of Trustees this fall.
Now, the iWG is gearing up for the drafting of the 2020 iCAP. Last year, we have received a lot of feedbacks from the SWATeams and the student body about the 2015 iCAP, our successes, and our areas for growth. After extensive consideration, we have reorganized the SWATeams as announced in the iSEE newsletter earlier this month. Soon we will be updating the email lists, so please do not be concerned if you are removed from a SWATeam email list and are planning to stay on the new team; all returning members will be added to the new SWATeam email lists, as they are created.
If you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to discuss this further. We thank you for your time, your enthusiasm, and your continuous efforts!
Sincerely,
Ximing Cai and Morgan White
iCAP Working Group, co-chairs
Following the completion of iWG assessment for Water006 Lot F23 Monitoring, the recommendation was returned back to the Water SWATeam so that a proposal for funding this project may be submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee.
See iWG assessment of Water006 Lot F23 Monitoring attached.
See SWATeam Recommendation Water006 Lot F23 Monitoring here.
The WSW SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG, stating:
"SeeClickFix is an application that is used by citizens of both Champaign and Urbana to report damaged or underperforming infrastructure to their local public works departments for repair. According to this application, 2498 issues were fixed all time in Champaign, and 27 have been resolved in Urbana. In similar fashion, the University has a few options to crowd-source data about infrastructure problems:
1. Facilities and Services (F&S) can set up their own account as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through the service to cut out the need to communicate directly with the two cities. This would most likely be the more costly option, but would be quick and require no third-party effort.
2. F&S could collaborate with Champaign and Urbana to receive information about infrastructure problems that fall under the campus’ jurisdiction. This option would likely be cheaper than having a subscription, but cooperation with the cities would be pivotal.
3. Through student-led projects, develop a campus-specific application and database. In this case, spatial data and data about the kind of problem can be incorporated with GIS and would be more readily available to the campus community. Water specific data could be used to determine the optimum locations for green stormwater infrastructure."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation Water007 SeeClickFix complete with comments from WSW SWATeam members.
An iCAP Working Group assessment of this recommendation began on June 7, 2019.
The WSW SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG, stating:
"The Water/Stormwater SWATTeam recommends that instrumentation to monitor the quality and quantity of runoff from parking lot F23 should be installed in the storm sewer carrying runoff from the lot. An instrumentation vault was installed at the southeast corner of the lot (where the storm sewer leaves the lot) several years ago, but no instrumentation installed. In order to demonstrate the impact of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI), this instrumentation should be installed and operational for at least one year before GSI is installed on the lot to provide a baseline to compare the post -installation runoff quality and quantity. We suggest a pressure transducer to record continuous water level (providing the flow rate using a calibrated stage-flow rating), a water-quality multiprobe with sensors for: turbidity, nitrate, pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, specific conductivity, fluorescent dye (which will be used to develop the stage-flow rating). The location would also need a data logger to record the measurements, and auxiliary components such as power supply and shelter."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation Water006 Lot F23 Monitoring complete with comments from WSW SWATeam members.
An iCAP Working Group assessment of this recommendation began on June 7, 2019.
Team members worked to complete recommendations on parking lot F23 monitoring and useage of an existing infrasturcture-reporting app to contribute to identifying stormwater infrastructure problems on campus.
Final notes on the evaluation on the current iCAP objectives were prepared for submission. Ideas for a general increase in student involvement in sustainability were mentioned.
Attainability of iCAP goals and a review of the objectives to be applied to the upcoming 2020 iCAP were discussed.
Updates on stormwater-related projects were mentioned, including an REU project to organize potential stormwater credits. Some points on campus were remarked as having successful or unsuccessful stormwater infrastructure.
Topics of discussion: potential to obtaining stormwater credits through best management practices; ideas for monitoring runoff from Lot F23 before and after renovation; updates on funding proposal for Red Oak Raingarden work
Topics of discusion: updates on Student Sustainability Committe proposals, ideas for recommendations in hopes to overcome obstacles related to water reuse and conducting water audit
Updates for Sustainability Celebration: team poster
Topics of discussion: Student Sustainability Committee proposals to be submitted by other team members for Red Oak Raingarden and Green Stormwater Master Plan; organizign obstacles in achieving iCAP goasl; action items for further working with Parking Department, information that will be required for water audit
Topics of discussion: possible toilet retrofitting for certain campus housing; completing Student Sustainability Committee proposal Parking Department submits; obstacles to achieving certain iCAP goals
Main topic of discussion was about drafting Student Sustainability Committee funding proposal for Parking Department for green stormwater infrastructure as part of next Lot F23 renovation
Hi Water and Stormwater SWATeam,
I am incredibly sorry I can’t attend the first SWATeam meeting on Monday (I’ll be out of town that day). I know you have several topics for your team to address this year, and I’m excited about the opportunities coming our way. This email is to share a few agenda items that I would appreciate your help with, as time permits this fall.
Thank you so much for your help with all of this! Having students, faculty, and staff working together to advance the iCAP has been a wonderful help, and I am eager to work with you this year. Sorry again for being unable to attend on Monday.
Thanks,
Morgan
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Ms. Morgan White
Associate Director of F&S, Sustainability
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
148B Physical Plant Service Building, MC-800
1501 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-2668 mbwhite@illinois.edu
The SWATeam asked County Engineer, Jeff Blue, who owns the bridge running across the Embarras on Airport Road (1100N) just west of the intersection of Race Street (1350E), in the hopes of adding a monitoring station. Mr. Blue replied, "That bridge is under the jurisdiction of Philo Township. I know he is doing some substantial work on the ditch on the north side of Airport Road this summer which leads to this bridge. I doubt if the township would object, but it would be best to wait until the work on the ditch is complete. Please let me know what type of monitoring device would be used and how it would be attached to the bridge. I should be your contact on this project, as we are the bridge inspectors on behalf on the township."
See attached the Appreciation Letter sent to all SWATeams earlier this month.
The Water and Stormwater SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG, stating, "The Facilities and Services Standards for Parking and for Stormwater Systems should be revised to include a greater emphasis on sustainable design Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) for stormwater management. This revision will align these standards with the newly adopted 2017 Campus Master Plan."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation, Water004 GSI Standards Parking Lots, complete with comments from all the Water and Stormwater SWATeam members.
The Water and Stormwater SWATeam submitted a recommendation, to the iWG, stating, "The appropriate campus units (Parking, Facilities and Services) should begin the process of implementing the award winning green stormwater redesign for parking Lot F4."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation, Water005 Rainworks Design Lot F4, complete with comments from all the Water and Stormwater SWATeam members.
Also, attached are the two supporting documents as submitted by the SWATeam.
