Carrier Dome

SU announces completion of Carrier Dome rainwater collection system

After nearly two years of planning and construction, Syracuse University announced the completion of the Carrier Dome’s rainwater collection system on Monday.

Rainwater and melted snow from approximately one-third to one-half of the Carrier Dome’s 6.5-acre roof will be collected in tanks located underground near the Heroy Geology Building. The collected water will then be stored and pumped into the Carrier Dome where it will be cleaned and dyed blue before being used to flush urinals and toilets inside the Dome, said Pete Sala, managing director of the Carrier Dome. The project was originally scheduled to be finished last fall.

The rainwater collection system includes two 25,000-gallon tanks located underground, two 4,500-gallon tanks located inside the Carrier Dome and more than 1,000 feet of well-labeled and color-coded piping, Sala said. Part of the system will be visible to the public inside the Dome.

The collected water will greatly reduce the effects of the overflow of water into the sewer systems, Sala said. The exact amount of rainwater and melted snow the system will be able to collect has yet to be determined.

The rainwater collection system had a tentative completion date of Oct. 31, but due to the need for custom-made parts for certain aspects of the system, the project could not be completed until now, Sala said.



“The most important pieces were the large underground tanks and those were completed as scheduled by the end of July before students came back to campus,” he said. “The custom design of tanks inside the Carrier Dome took a little longer because they had to be a certain size and we wanted to get it right.”

Sala said that there are no immediate plans for additional, eco-friendly projects in the Carrier Dome.

“Right now we want to monitor the rainwater collection system and make sure it works. If it does we have the options to expand the project in the future because of the way the system was built,” he said. “We always have the option to do more, but right now we’re taking baby steps.”





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