1984_04 The Daily Collegian April 1984

              April 6,1984
April*, 1»84   JPragcsff
Campus water a source of pride
Two years ago. a car plunged into a power line on the
north side of campus. The resulting power loss was only
temporary, but those in charge of the campus water
system were quite upset.
The reason for their displeasure was that for the first
time in its history. CSUF. its well-pumps ineffective, had
to get its water from an outside source.
And this, to those who've been pulling water out ofthe
ground and pumping it around campus since CSUF
opened its doors here in the mid-50s. was catastrophic.
And forgettable.
"We're connected to the city in case there's an
emergency, but we've never used it (the back-upsystem)."
said an obviously proud Plumbing Supervisor Ernie
Safley. whose memory took a few moments to kick into
gear. "Well, just that once."
Despite the blemish, the maintenance personnel who
make sure that students, faculty and trees have plenty to
drink every day are pleased with their record—if only
because they've saved some money.
"We can get the water from the city,"said Planl Opera-
ions Chief Engineer Mike Cuneo. "(But) we dont like to
Instead, CSUF gets every
drop it needs^an estimated
1.500 gallons a minute in th
e summer months—from its
five wells located around c
mpus. The wells reach 100
feet deep into the earth to
*ater that's so pure, it goes
straight from the ground lo the drinking fountain with¬
out so much as a drop of chlorine.
"It's good water." Safley said. "It's checked twice a
month by the county and there have never been any
How it getsoui of the ground and into thirsty students
and faculty, however, is a little complicated. While some
people may think of themselves as drinking from a 100
foot straw when they belly up to their favorite fountain.
mple.
poftl
Place #2: Part of tl
and drinking fountain
it is very much apprec
Place #3: The rest ol
to a refrigeration unit,
heat cold buildin,
it again. And again
t first pass through the a]
Ofoot
id again,
places, how-
iximately 25
backbone of
feet under ground. Those c;
the water system on campus.
They're also a pain in the neck if they break.
Perhaps the systems only consistent problem area,
water pipe leaks, are easy to detect — less water comes
back to Plant operations than was pumped out—but
difficult to find. Because leaks can waste as much as 5.000
gallons of water a day. it's important that they be pin¬
pointed and repaired as soon as possible.
Fortunately, however, said engineer Henry Lowe,
whose job it is to find those leaks, there are only about
three "problems" a year.
Usually.
Lowe was showing reporters a dug-out section of leaky
pipe between the Conley Art Building and New Science
the other day when he stumbled upon a new leak bub¬
bling up to the suface. A few moments later, he disco-
' vcred another one...and then another.
, Ihe university had met its quota of
sfortr
;o say anything about this linc,**"he said."
"I might get in trouble."
Finding leaky pipes isnt extremely difficult. Lowe
said, once you know what you're looking for. A patch of
dead grass where overwatering has occured is one subtle
sign that there's a leak nearby. A giant hole in the ground
with steam pouring from it is another.
"We find thern," Lowe said. "There are signs."
That's fine, some observers might say, but wouldn't it
be easier and cheaper just to buy water from the city and
heat and cool the buildings wilh electricity?
In a word, says Safley, "no."
In the first place, he said, the university might not be
able to get its water from the city even if it wanted to.
CSUF, Safley said, uses up an awful lot of the stuff.
"They could never handle it." he said. "This system is
comparable to that of a city the size of Clovis. We proba¬
bly have more bsthrooms alone than they have."
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Henry Lowe, operating engineer for 16 years, can be s<
■ovlng constantly around the refrigeration unit that will keep the campus building cool in the summer.
I n the second place, Safley said, making the cc
would be impractical. When the university first took up
residence in the area in 1953. there was no city here.
There was also no water here. Like pioneers, the universi¬
ty's founders knew lhat if they wanted water, they'd have
to dig for it.
The problem, of course, is that 31 years and several
million dollars worth of water collection, storage and
transportation equipment later, it's a little late to
change. Obviously, a multi-million dollar system that's
still in "good shape" is going to be used regardless of
whether or not city water is availible.
Still, though, talking to the men who make the water
system go. it's hard not to get the feeling that they just
plain like things the way they are. There's plenty of water
to be had right under our feet, they say, so why nol get it.
In all. there are two plumbers and six engineers who
devote their time to Ihe campus water system. Their jobs
range from keeping the heating plant boilers running at
500 degrees to adding algae-killing chemicals to water
going to the refrigeration units.
However, because it's running a system that itself runs
24 hours a day, that staff sometimes seems awfully small.
"It does get pretty small sometimes," Safley said.
"We're kind of understaffed and sometimes we get pretty
No matter how busy they get or how much water they
use, however, there seems to be no danger of the well
runningdrysomehotsummerday. In 21 years, Ihe water
table has only dropped 20 feet. Safley said, and since
CSUF wells reach to a depth of 150 feet—50 feet deeper
than-now necessary— the university shouldn't haveany
water worries for a while.
"Water?" Safley asked. "WeVe got plenty."
Photo* by Michael Penn
Lowe put* up a barrier
Tower a'reservoir'
in case of fire
Sails* la front of Um boUsag n
Nearly 130 feet above the planl oper-
ions yard stands 1.275,000 pounds of
Iter, supported by six steel columns.
ith a payload of 50 pounds per square
eight and a half pounds per gallon,
the 150,000 gallons held in the water tower
provide 50 pounds of pressure for every
drinking fountain, shower, toilet, and
sprinkler on campus. Fire hydrants are
so on the list, and are the reason the
iter tower was built back in 1952.
Plant operation's chief engineer, Mike
uneo. said the water tower was erected in
1952 for fire prevention purposes, to
supply "enough water on campus to fight
fire when the campus was totally sep-
-ate from the city.
"If your pumps are down you have no
water to fight a fire. It's just a reservoir.
It's used as a gravity feed to the campus,"
Cuneo said.
e water is pumped up into the tower
from underground wells by four pumps
can fill the tower simultaneously,
Cuneo said,indicating that sometimes the
pumps stick.
"It has overflowed. If the pump fails to
top and the tank gets full, then it will
overflow," Cuneo said.
iix-inch pipe carries the excess water
down to a sewer drain in the plant
dDerations yard at 800 gallons per minute,
'and tends to flood the place," he said.
There it a-sand separator at the base Of
tbe water tower which Cuneo said water is
filtered through on its way up to the
reservoir. From there the water goes up,
while the sand is sent into a trap at ground
level a few yards from a sewer drain.
The sand separator ia regularly flushed
into the sand trap, said Cuneo, adding
that "the sand will settle out to the bottom
a'hd it's a hand shovel job from there."He
said that 6-8 inches of sand accumulates
before the trap is emptied with a p
and the sand shoveled out.
Plant operation's chief plumber, Ernie
Safley, said that he has climbed one ofthe
narrow Ladders that leads up to a i
walkway welded to the side ofthe 127 foo
4 inch tower reservoir. "It gets pretty
windy up there," Safley said.
"Red lights around the top (of tl
reservoir tank) and on the sides are used I
warn aircraft," said Safley, adding that
the light bulbs have lo be changed
occasionally.
To help workers climb to the top safely
a cable runs up parallel to the ladder
Cuneo said that workers can attach a
hook to the cable, which is divided into 20
to 30 .foot sections with metal rungs
"That's.to hold you to the ladder," said
When Cuneo was asked how to avoid
slidingdowntothc next rungduringafall
he said "you don't. You might be able to
slide thirty feet, but I'm guesting at that."
Associate Director of Plant Operations
Fred Capshew, said university employees
haven't been tbe only ones to make the
long climb'tfprhe ODak. Sometime during
January vandals visited the tank with
can of black spray paint.
"Zip," "Cake," and "Rob" were add¬
on to the red and white-checkered water
tower in the crude scrawl typical of spray
paint cans. Tbe vandals are noted sioiuk
plant operations for being the first to sdt
graffiti to the tower in the last ten years.
"Its very dangerous, sad very 4s-
strucjive," Capshew said about the graffiti
have the fund* to pay for the tower to be
repainted. "We're trying to gjK o>onry "
have it painted. Maybe that tbe fax
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