FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2008
Contact Ben Chambers, (770) 537-5756

A concentrated effort by West Central Technical College staff has lead to a college-wide 15.4 percent water use reduction in 2008.

“We developed a plan last summer to cut our water usage 10-15 percent, in order to comply with the Governor’s 10 percent reduction mandate,” Director of Facilities Art Johnson said. “We are very pleased to report a 15.4 percent overall reduction.”

Johnson pointed to a number of initiatives in the College’s water conservation plan that he said led to the reduction.

“We have totally eliminated outdoor watering, washing of state vehicles and steam cleaning of carpets,” Johnson said. “We’ve also cut off the hot water to campus restrooms and the water supply to all public drinking fountains on our campuses.”

“Our staff has really taken this goal seriously. We know the state is in a drought and we want to do our part.”

President Dr. Skip Sullivan agreed. “The Governor’s 10 percent reduction mandate is indicative of the seriousness of statewide drought conditions. Even though recent rains have many of our local reservoirs at sound levels, we know that everyone needs to make an effort to be more mindful of water conservation,” he said.

Officials at the Technical College System of Georgia – of which West Central is a part – said they are encouraged by the work done by each of the state technical colleges.

“Each of Georgia’s 33 technical colleges is striving to adhere to the Governor’s order to state agencies to reduce their water use,” Ron Jackson, Commissioner of the Technical College System, said. “I commend President Skip Sullivan and all of the staff, faculty and students at West Central Tech for exceeding their goal of reducing their annual water usage by 15 percent.” 

By campus, the Murphy Campus in Haralson County led with a 29 percent reduction for the first quarter of 2008. The Carroll Campus in Carrollton had an 18 percent reduction from last year and the Douglas Campus in Douglasville was down 1 percent.

The Douglas Campus has a unique situation because of the dental hygiene program housed there, Johnson said.

“The vacuum system used by the dental hygiene program uses a little more than a gallon a minute when operating, totaling up to about 12,000 gallons a month,” he said. “We know the program uses much more than that, as well, when you think about how much water a dental office uses to wash hands, instruments and mouths.”

The College has plans to do even more, with the implementation of a rainwater recovery and storage system to be installed on the roof of the Murphy Campus maintenance building.

“We continue to monitor our water usage closely, including checks on every system that uses water on our campuses,” Johnson said.

“West Central Tech and the entire Technical College System of Georgia will continue to do everything possible to ensure that we do our part to help conserve our state’s precious water resources,” Commissioner Jackson said.

West Central Technical College, with campuses in Carroll, Coweta, Douglas and Haralson counties, offers over 90 associate degree, diploma and technical certificate programs of study. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, West Central last year served over 10,000 students including credit enrollment, adult education, ESL classes, continuing education and corporate training.

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