UNC's Water Wars To Last All Semester

Members of the University Housing and Residence Hall Water Conservation Task Force unanimously decided to keep the program alive at a meeting Monday afternoon.

Roughly a third of residence hall communities met the University's goal of decreasing water usage by 25 percent, said Rick Bradley, an associate director in the Department of Housing and Residential Education.

"Overall, conservation was achieved," said task force member Ellen Jones, the resident director of Hinton James North Residence Hall.

Water Wars, a competition between campus residence halls to lower water usage levels, kicked off Oct. 23 with much fanfare.

Task force members reviewed results, which measured usage of everything from showers to washing machines.

The winning residence hall is scheduled to be announced today.

It will be awarded $200 for its efforts.

To keep up conservation awareness among students, officials also agreed to form a permanent organization, which will expand its horizons to include energy conservation, recycling and community service.

"We will definitely be back in this situation in a year or two, and if we had an ongoing committee that could start immediately, that would be more efficient," Bradley said.

Planning on a formation date of mid-January, members hope to include individuals from the departments of Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Future ideas being considered for the program include using new, energy-saving light bulbs, continuing food and clothing drives with the Campus Y and placing conservation awareness stickers in campus bathrooms.

After this year's severe drought, residents were forced to cut back on the amount of water used, a lesson some task force members hope will carry on in the future.

"I feel like people's conservation efforts aren't so monstrous that they can't keep it up," said Emily Rubin, a resident assistant for McIver Residence Hall.

Residence Hall Association President Joanna Jordan called the program a success and added that she received no complaints from students concerning conservation efforts.

"They are being good citizens within Chapel Hill, and it also saves money," Jordan said.

More information about Water Wars and the University's conservation efforts can be found at http://housing.unc.edu.

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.