The Future of Miller Fountain at Trinity University

Lifeless empty Miller Fountain at Trinity University due to water restrictions imposed by SAWS. Photo: Digital Subway

Trinity University has experienced a temporary albeit important loss in its essence and tradition ever since Miller Fountain stopped sprouting water. Dry and lifeless, it no longer adorns Trinity’s iconic Bell Tower or the Northrup Building, which houses the “Oval Office of Trinity”. Instead, it sits mournfully among the adjacent rubble from drilling and construction sites.

The Miller Fountain has remained shut for a long time in compliance with San Antonio Water System’s (SAWS) Phase Two Drought water restrictions. The last time it sprouted was during Senior’s graduation (see picture below) and that was only for a day. The fountain has remained shut before that due to Phase One water restrictions imposed by SAWS. The sprouts that gushed forth out of fountain’s nozzles had served to palliate souls that took refuge in its solace. Instead of offering a repose to humans (who visited it for occasional escapes), an empty fountain now further aggravates feelings of emptiness and failure.

 Paurakh and me during his graduation. Best of luck for his Ph.D program at Stanford University. 

Furthermore, Trinity students have not celebrated their birthdays in the old-fashioned way ever since the fountains went dry. An important tradition has been to throw the student in the fountain on the midnight of their birthday. This has been followed without any ordinance or mention in Student Handbook. A reason to rejoice though is that some Trinity students have not given up on this tradition despite this. On one occasion, my friends and I hand-carried water in our bottles and mugs to the fountain and poured it on the birthday boy as a symbolic gesture of celebrating birthday and also upholding the Trinity tradition. I have seen some others do the same.

Water level in Edwards Aquifer for the recent 12 months. Source: SAWS website.

It is natural to ask then, when will the drought restrictions be lifted? When will Trinity students start enjoying the beauty, serenity and the tradition offered by Miller Fountain they had hitherto taken for granted? The answer lies on SAWS website. Currently, San Antonio is in Phase Two water restrictions due to drought which has decreased the water level in Edwards Aquifer. Edwards Aquifer is the only source of clean drinking water from the underground in San Antonio. The water level has been receding due to lack of rainfall but continued usage by city dwellers. Phase I is enacted when the water level drops below 660 ft below sea level. And Phase II is enacted when it drops below 650 ft below sea level. Currently, the water level is around 643 ft. Following the water level trend in the last two months, SAWS might have to declare Phase III soon if, the water level drops below 640 ft. The water restrictions will be even stricter and seeing sprouts in Miller Fountain might be a distant dream.

So, is it all doom for Trinity students  and residents of San Antonio? Should we all start praying to the God for showering us with some love and rain? Of course, there is an option for us to reduce our water consumption by taking shorter showers and using electric razors among others. We are talking about a drastic change in water consumption habits here. And that is not easy.

Verdant grass despite SAWS restrictions because Trinity uses recycled/reclaimed water. Photo: Digital Subway

On the positive side, the grasses and lawns at Trinity have still remained verdant and green, thanks to sprinkling that has been performed duly. During phase II, use of non-handheld sprinklers are prohibited, but Trinity seems to have gotten around that because it uses recycled, treated water. 

Another note to SAWS and other city dwellers (who might be jealous) to justify Trinity's use of sprinklers. Photo: Digital Subway

A short term and a hell lot easier solution to get Miller Fountain operational is to get a waiver from SAWS. If Trinity can convince SAWS that fountain’s operation is essential for reasons other than aesthetics alone and that only secondary (treated) water is being used, an exception might be granted. If not, Trinity could always use the condensate from its cooling and heating units. Condensates in most air conditioning units go to waste by default. Harvesting rainwater and treating it for circulation in the fountains is also a possibility. If all fails, the talented students and professors in Chemistry department might devise an experiment to produce inexpensive water that does not come from SAWS and thus not subject to drought restrictions. The dry fountains should serve as the innovation bed for Trinity’s creative minds.

San Antonio earning a name in Clean tech Industry

San Antonio's major Julian Castro announced a partnership to bring five cleantech companies to San Antonio next year or so. This is under his overarching Mission Verde Plan that wants to make San Antonio the greenest city in the U.S. I am excited that San Antonio is doing a lot of activities to make the city sustainable and promote greener lifestyle among city residents. While working as the energy management intern at Office of Environmental Policy, City of San Antonio, I am glad that my work to benchmark city-owned facilities for utility consumption will assist the city to become greener by reducing its energy consumption. 

CPS Energy is also aggressively supporting renewable energy generation by calling for investors to build utility-scale PV in the region in the upwards of 400 MW. This will place San Antonio on the charts among the cities with the largest PV installations. Since CPS Energy is a municipal owned utility with a monopoly in San Antonio for supplying electricity and natural gas to homes and businesses, it can drive changes from top-down very easily. In addition, unlike privately owned utilities, it is not always trying to maximize profits. It has responsibly encouraged homes and businesses to perform energy audits that are highly subsidized by CPS Energy, either through its own funds or stimulus money. It also supports installations of programmable thermostats and many smart meters as part of pilot program have already been installed. Its website offers numerous suggestions on how to reduce energy consumption and what kind of electrical appliances to buy/install for maximum efficiency. This is a very exciting time to be in San Antonio, Texas or the South in general because it is among the leading regions in renewable energy production and cleantech jobs.

On the Fate of Lucky, the Elephant at San Antonio Zoo

I wrote this article for my environmental ethics course in response to support the movement that is working to free Lucky, an elephant at the San Antonio Zoo. I figured this might be of interest to people interested in animal rights.

Lucky, an elephant at San Antonio Zoo has been captive for almost five decades, even more than 24-25 years which is called life imprisonment for humans. Source: http://bit.ly/fBvfmb

Lucky, a 53 year old Asian female elephant currently at San Antonio Zoo needs to be freed and transferred to Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Despite living in unfavorable conditions, she has lived longer than any other elephant at San Antonio Zoo and remained as the lone survivor until another Asian elephant named Boo was recently acquired. Taking a non-anthropocentric stance and using Dale Jamieson’s arguments against zoos, I argue that zoos are an unsuitable place for elephants, the largest land mammals on the Earth. Jamieson argues that animal captivity in zoos is immoral when it fails to provide any substantial entertainment or educational experience to humans. Any child or student would learn more about an elephant by reading a book, watching animal planet documentaries or even Disney cartoons than seeing the giant locked up miserably in a space that does not reflect its natural habitat. On the contrary, observing Lucky in a static position for a long time might lead a child to believe that elephants are generally lazy which would be an incorrect inference since elephants in the wild on average walk more than ten miles daily (IDA Letter). In addition, watching a static animal in a cramped space is far from entertaining. Utilitarians such as Peter Singer might argue that animal captivity can be justified if the total utility (entertainment and education) provided is greater than the negative utility (suffering) of the animal. However, SA Zoo as an institution has failed to amuse or educate its visitors about an elephant and thus can no longer claim that Lucky needs to remain at the zoo to serve public interest.

According to the Voice for Animals, most zoo elephants die before reaching the age of 40 while on average elephants live up to 60 in the wild. Radical egalitarians like Tom Regan would consider this as a violation of the animal’s “Right to Life” while Jamieson would term this as violence since captivity prevents the mammal from realizing its full potential. Furthermore, Jamieson would fail to see any reason for Lucky’s presence in SA Zoo since it has neither been used for any kind of life-saving scientific research nor reared to preserve an endangered species. In fact, he would be appalled to realize that a happy and healthy four year old female Asian elephant was captured and transported thousands of miles away to be placed among non-native African elephants ostensibly for entertainment and education of American population.

San Antonio Zoo. Source: http://bit.ly/fVj0Tk

It appears that zoos captivate the biggest land mammals on the Earth to display it as a treasure and use it as a major attraction for visitors just like kings in the past used to own the best and most fierce gladiators to entertain its public. Animal captivity in zoos shows that even though [human] slavery is over, animal slavery is still in practice. The director of San Antonio Zoo, Steve McCusker kept Lucky, an Asian elephant with an African elephant despite the risks of contagion. After 49 years, he still refuses to grant her the freedom that she is entitled to. Ignoring the recommendations of In Defense of Animals (IDA), Voice for Animals and other animal welfare groups, McCusker has chosen to add yet another Asian elephant named Boo to the zoo’s collection instead of sending Lucky to the sanctuary. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has agreed to bear all costs associated to Lucky’s transportation but it seems McCusker is too reluctant to free its “slave” without compensation. After all, zoos are business enterprises set up to maximize profit rather than animal care centers set out of overflowing passion. Any sane human who cares for animals would not advocate caging of animals since zoos are like prisons where innocent animals are caged for no discernible crime.

Regan does not see animals as mere resources and as a radial egalitarian might argue for an immediate rehabilitation of Lucky in native forests of Thailand, its true home. But keeping in perspective the fact that Lucky has been living in a zoo environment for the last 49 years, it might be rational to rehabilitate her at Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where she can be taken care of in old age, if she were to need help. To prolong Lucky’s captivity any further would be a crime since she deserves to be closer to the nature, walk several miles every day for which her feet is designed, meet native mates and experience the air of freedom before taking her last breath.