SOU Sustainability Council
The SOU Campus Irrigation System
The campus irrigation system is made up of several large component parts that cannot operate simultaneously due to the basic flow rate of the supply. The University’s irrigation water is provided by TID. The City of Ashland administers distribution of TID water within the city limits. The water is released from the mountain lakes head gate 24 hours before it reaches the campus. Once the water is released, it cannot be stopped. SOU receives 0.5 cubic feet of water per second. If we do not use the water, it is either pumped to the City’s water treatment plant or diverted into Bear Creek at the west side of town.
The SOU irrigation system begins at the open TID ditch and head gate above campus, where the water is run through a series of screens to filter out large pieces of debris. The water then runs downhill through intake lines to our filter plant, where it passes through two 6’-long tube filters. The water is then supplied to campus irrigation systems through a 4” main line. There is no pump. The system is gravity-fed. The water pressure at the tube filters is 100 PSI.
The SOU irrigation system has 17 in-line filters at the point of connection for the 51 large, independent automatic irrigation systems and 47 battery-operated irrigation systems. There are 23 manual or hand valve systems, and about 40% or 26 acres of the campus are irrigated by manual quick coupler systems, where the irrigator plugs in a sprinkler and unplugs it when enough water has been applied.
