North Carolina: Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina)

Green Infrastructure Type: Green Campuses

Types of Green Infrastructure Used: Porous Pavement, Green Roofs, Cisterns, Infiltration Beds, Vegetated Swales

Summary:

Green roof at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Photo Credit: Sharon Myers, UNC

Description:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has numerous green infrastructure stormwater management BMPs in place around campus. The design process began in 2001 and green infrastructure came online in 2002. The impetus for introducing green infrastructure on UNC's campus came from a higher education bond for expanding all college campuses in North Carolina. The university negotiated with the town of Chapel Hill to incorporate green infrastructure techniques in new development; this assists the town in complying with regulatory requirements as part of their Phase II stormwater permit. Green infrastructure designs and specifications are now included in building projects.

UNC has four porous pavement parking lots that contain infiltration/storage beds beneath the pavement. Above and below ground cisterns are located across campus and are used for irrigation and also toilet flushing in the Fedex Global Education Center. The university will continue to place cisterns on campus as part of new building projects. Hooker field gathers water from roofs of adjacent buildings and can hold up to 500,000 gallons of water in the infiltration bed.

The university also continues to incorporate stormwater plantings around campus; the Grounds Department encourages creative design by holding contests and awarding prizes to Ground's employees who suggest viable locations for campus stormwater plantings. There is presently an estimated 3 to 4 acres of pervious pavements and 1 acre of green roofs on campus; the efficiency and effectiveness of these various green infrastructure techniques are not directly monitored. Two perennial streams are located on UNC's campus - Meeting of the Waters and Battle Branch - and monitoring of physical, biological, and chemical water quality characteristics is conducted downstream.

Future Projects: UNC is currently in the development stage of creating a non-potable water utility. The non-potable water will come from cistern stormwater and reclaimed water from the local wastewater treatment plant; it will be used for irrigation, toilet flushing and cooling towers.

A campus wide stormwater master plan began in early 2008 and a manual for operations and maintenance of the BMPs is also being developed.

For more information, visit: http://ehs.unc.edu/environmental/stormwater/innovative.shtml . The website also includes information on good stormwater practices for campus maintenance activities (http://ehs.unc.edu/environmental/stormwater/bmp.shtml) ) And more broadly, UNC's Sustainability Office (http://sustainability.unc.edu/Default.aspx ) promotes the balance of social, environment, and economic goals on campus.

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Last updated on September 10, 2009 10:55 AM
URL:http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/greeninfrastructure/gicasestudies_specific.cfm