A plan for an environmentally green water treatment plant at Ball State is still on hold, two years after its introduction.
The proposal looks to build a BlueHouse — an alternative to traditional sewage plants that uses organic life to clean and recycle waste water.
The university’s primary reason for holding the project is to focus on renovations to residence halls and the campus master plan.
The plan also proposes that Ball State would save money it currently uses on sewage treatment. Ball State spends about $1 million on sewage and water treatment.
“This number has been increasing and will continue to increase for years,” said Kevin Kenyon, the associate vice president of facilities planning and management.
The proposal says the BlueHouse would save the university $1 million a year after 20 years, but Kenyon said he doubted the validity of the estimate.
Overall, Kenyon said this project is something that will take careful planning when he has more time.
“It’s just not something that’s going to happen for a while,” he said. “I’d like to see it, but I just don’t have enough staff. If we only had one project, we would barrel straight ahead.”
BLUEHOUSE
Sheryl Swingley is the College of Communication, Information, and Media representative to the Council on the Environment. After visiting a green waste water treatment company in Hungary, Swingley introduced the resolution in April 2012 to bring BlueHouse to Ball State.
Her interest in this project started out from an academic perspective. BlueHouses take waste water and use organic life, such as plants, microorganisms, fish and bugs, to clean it for reuse. These are constructed so that the greenhouse sits upon a buried waste chamber.
Swingley said the components of the facility also could serve as a lab where classes and experiments could be done in areas such as sustainable technologies, biology and botany.
“BlueHouses and living machines are not just alternative to sewage treatment plants; they are an opportunity for students and education,” she said.
Swingley said the BlueHouse would fit in well as a physical reminder of Ball State’s push for environmental sustainability.
“We need this to be a symbol of sustainability for our campus,” she said. “People need to see it because geothermal is almost all underground, and you can’t really identify it.”
SUSTAINABLE WATER
Sustainable Water, a sustainability consulting firm from Richmond, Va., extended an offer to pay for construction of a BlueHouse at Ball State. Kenyon said the university would probably avoid outsourcing to build a facility on campus.
Kenyon said a construction cost estimate can’t be made because Sustainable Water builds facilities on a case-by-case basis.
Another hurdle to accepting the offer from Sustainable Water is the company’s terms. The plan proposes that the structure be owned by Sustainable Water, and the university pay them to use it.
“If we are going to build something on campus, it is going to be through us,” he said. “We have had enough arguments with past contractors that no one really wants to go outsource. There [have] also been numerous legal hurdles that we don’t know how to get around because they would be owning a private facility on public property.”
The university has not been in contact with Sustainable Water since the initial proposal presentations.
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