Waste Reduction Application:

Annual Savings:

Contact:

Background:

Lester Carr, Director of Engineering of the Veterans Affairs Hospital at Asheville, NC requested a water assessment.  The water assessment team (Leslee Beeler, Asheville-Buncombe Water Authority agent, and Bob Schornstheimer, Waste Reduction Assessor) performed an on-site inspection on February 16 and March 3, 1993 with Allen Wilson, Maintenance Foreman.  Ed Sherlin, Boiler Plant Supervisor, furnished information on the cooling towers and the steam plant.

The overall facility has several buildings on the grounds including a 354-bed hospital, a 64-bed nursing home and several buildings containing apartments for some hospital personnel.  Currently there are 1000 employees and 58 volunteers.

The VA Hospital complex uses 65,000,000 gallons of water per year, which is an average rate of 7,400 gallon per hour.

The annual cost for water was $114,200.  Estimating that 70% of the water consumption becomes effluent to the sewer, the sewer cost would amount to $44,300.  Combined water consumption and effluent cost would be $158,500 per year or $13,200 per average month.  The water usage is measured by four (4) meters.

WASTE REDUCTION ACTIVITIES

Recommended a program of adding aerators and valve adjustments to reduce rate of flow for all sinks.  This action could reduce water usage as much as 2,300,000 GPY, saving $6,400 in water and sewer charges.  (AS of January 1996 this recommendation had not been implemented.

An engineering review of the cooling tower operation discovered a faulty meter which gave erroneous water usage data.  Since accurate metered date was not available, the cooling tower water usage rate was calculated by using the engineering standard “rule of thumb” figure of 2 pounds of water usage for each ton of cooling rating.  (Includes evaporation, carryover and bleed water).  The total water used by the four (4) cooling towers was calculated to be 60,000 gallons per day.  For the period from May 1992 through April 1993, cooling tower water usage is estimated to be 22,000,000 gpy, approximately 38% of the total water consumption (65,000,000 gpy).

It was recommended to up-grade or repair the equipment coordinating the feed control, the chemicals injection, and the bleed volume.  Also, it was recommended to add heaters to the tanks which would eliminate the dumping and refilling cycle in sub-freezing weather,

These recommendations would result in water reduction of 6,000,000 gpy, for a savings of $20,000 for water and chemicals.  Fuel and electric energy savings resulting from the above action would be 15% or $4,000.  Therefore, the total annual waste reduction savings would be $30,400  ($6,400 + $20,000 + $4,000).

WASTE REDUCTION ANNUAL SAVINGS ($30,400)

A 1996 follow-up audit revealed that the V. A. Hospital had indeed implemented the 1993 recommendations by repairing the faulty meter, installing electronic sensors and butterfly valves in their cooling tower sumps.  They also installed electric sump heaters which eliminated the expensive dumping procedure.