Kern Center this February, the team who designed the state-of-the-art green building fully expected to get approval for its innovative rainfall-to-drinking water system.
The state Department of Environmental Protection, however, put those hopes on hold.
The problem was that the process the center used to collect and disinfect rain for its drinking water was so cutting-edge that state regulators had to update drinking water guidelines to provide relevant directions for the college to follow.
“They’ve worked really hard to accommodate what’s still an experiment,” Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash said of state regulators.
After initially saying the college could apply a certain level of UV light to kill pathogens, inspectors reversed course and said a higher UV level was needed, Chamberland said.
During that wait, the building’s planners were worried that the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency would also require them to use chlorine to disinfect the rainwater.
That’s because Hampshire College entered the Kern Center into the green building certification program known as the Living Building Challenge.
Holland and Chamberland already anticipate possible negotiations over another new practice they’d like to employ.
The dairy products were collecting in the center’s greywater system.
Urine from the zero-waste toilets quickly corroded a brass fitting in the composter system.