Currently, the Illini Union has a variety of water fountains in the facility, totaling 16 units. Select fountains were retrofitted in 2009 with "goose-neck" style bottle filler fixtures, however these are susceptible to damage and not filtered. Twelve units in public areas are proposed for replacement in this project with Elkay fountains that have built in bottle refill stations. (two existing floor mounted ADA fountains on the 2nd and 3rd Floors of the North Building were excluded from the scope due to extensive engineering and construction costs associated with modifying historic woodwork and utilities. In addition, two wall mounted units located in non-public work areas were also excluded from the scope of this project). Of the fountains proposed, only units on the basement level and first floor were approved by SSC.

These water fountains will make it much easier to fill water bottles than the current water fountains and provide filtered, cool water to students and guests. These fill stations will also track the number of bottles saved from the land fill and will provide this information on an LED screen at the top of the refill station. The LED screens on each water fountain can be used as an educational resource for all users. These new Elkay water fountains will encourage everyone to refill their water bottles because each unit provides a real time digital display of the number of bottles saved from the landfill.