Border Patrol Sector Headquarters (BPSH) Del Rio Building #1 Administration Building
Project Summary
In FY 2023, GSA’s Region 7 developed a new program to target high water use facilities. The Water Use Intensity (WUI) reduction team created a ‘top 10’ list of facilities based upon their recent water use, which determined which buildings to focus on and ensured that mitigation efforts and support were provided to the facilities with the greatest need. The team used this data to identify best practices and monitor region-wide trends, which was particularly important during seasonal weather changes.
Sustainability Features
Based on the Top 10 list, the WUI team contacted the Building Manager at BPSH Del Rio to inquire about ways to improve the water use. This resulted in a much closer partnership between the GSA Region, field office, and contractor. They visited the site to inspect the high WUI and identified multiple issues with a degraded irrigation system beyond its useful life expectancy. The O&M team then sent subject matter experts to the site to investigate in response to the WUI team’s query and discovered that multiple valves were leaking and open, causing water loss 24/7. Additionally, the irrigation system was programmed to operate for extreme time durations and frequency.
The influence of the WUI team also continues to have a lasting effect. A partnership between the Contracting Officer’s Representative, Building Management Specialist (BMS), and contractor discovered that urinal flush valves in some restrooms had been tampered with by the tenants, resulting in massive overuse at those fixtures. The facility was also missing aerators and/or restrictors on the water fixtures, which the field office now plans to add.