Bring on the Ban: Owning the Water You Drink

Sustainable Saints get inspired at WAHESC (Washington Higher Education Sustainability Conference) and initiate the conversation about banning bottled water on campus.

Scholar's Day. Annabel and Dalia present reasons to ban the bottle at SMU.

Bring on the Ban: Owning the Water You Drink

HH 115

April 29, 2014

1:30pm

Annabel Warnell

Dalia Pedro-Trujillo

This presentation takes a closer look at the “Ban the Bottle” movement that has successfully spread among several institutions of higher education in Washington State. Drawing upon inspiration from the Washington Higher Education Sustainability Conference this past February, the following questions are explored: what are the benefits and consequences of the ban, what does the ban really aim to accomplish, and why should Saint Martin’s join the ranks of “bottle-banners?”

A Laboratory for Learning

The SMU Learning Garden is a laboratory for a hands-on exploration of subjects such as sustainability, food justice, urban farming and engineering.

On Earth Day, April 22 at 6:30pm we will be screening the film Growing Cities in Harned Hall 110 (free). The film examines the role of urban farming in America and the potential of urban farms to revitalize the city and to improve the ways that we eat and live. It will be followed by a discussion with a panel of local farmers and food activists. Check out the full program here. If this inspires you to action, stop by the SMU Learning Garden just outside of the cafeteria.

The campus garden is a perfect place to apply theory to practice and to experiment with urban farming and sustainability ideas. It is a lab to learn and to model  sustainable ways to produce food on a small plot of land. For example, most recently, we have faced the problem of water. EPA cites that sustainable water management is essential to ensuring the environmental and economic sustainability of our communities.

So we asked, how can we collect and use rain water to water plants in the garden? We began with a 260 gallon food-grade tote, found on Craigslist for $100. If you do a search online, you will find that there are plenty of these containers available for re-use after they have been emptied of their original contents.

Next, we had to figure out how to install the massive tote in the garden. Since the plot is in the center of campus and highly visible, aesthetics are just as important as function.

Maintenance technician, Vernon Randloph, came up with the ingenious design. He covered the plastic container with cedar siding to blend it into the garden and raised it to create water pressure for watering.

To our surprise, the 260 gal. tote filled up after only a couple of days of rain! Vernon had to engineer a design that dealt with the overflow.  Once the tote was full, it would spill over and create a drainage problem around the base of the building and in the garden, so Vernon rerouted the overflow back into the building drain. Check out the incoming and the outgoing pipes and the awesome water pressure. Now we have a model for a water collection system that can be used for demonstrations of the design, class experiments as well as for watering the garden.

What do we do with the food that we grow? In the Benedictine spirit of service to the community, it goes to the Thurston County Food Bank.

Micro-irrigation continued

setting up micro-irrigation

This is a continuation of last week’s workshop. Newcomers welcome. You did not have to have come to the last workshop to attend this one. Rebeca will continue setting up the micro-irrigation system. Come and learn how it works!

Garden Party Workshop

Micro-sprinkling for a small garden

The Learning Garden (just outside of the cafeteria)

Thursday, July 19

11am-1pm

Learn about how to set up a water-saving small scale irrigation system. You can do this at home. It’s inexpensive and saves you water and time. Learn by helping set up our own micro-sprinklers in the garden beds. It’s so easy you will be amazed.

Everyone is welcome! Workshop led by local gardener Rebeca Potasnik

Also, come taste the ripe berries and take some herbs home – there are still raspberries in the garden and fresh oregano and mint!

Watering Meditation

Watering the garden is a meditative way to start the morning. You stand patiently among the plants and watch the earth soak in moisture. While we wait for facilities to set us up with a more convenient water access, we've devised an irrigation system with soaker hoses and and watering cans. If you would like to take on a day to water the garden, let us know. We'd be happy to add you to our schedule.

Rosemary waters the tomato plants. Photo by Prof. David Suter