University of Iowa looks to update dorm, improve campus water quality

IOWA CITY - With University of Iowa pushing to accommodate a growing student body by adding to its on-campus housing in the form of three new residence halls, officials this week also are asking the Board of Regents to approve renovations to an existing dormitory and upgrades to its water filtration system.

UI is proposing spending $3.8 million to renovate all eight floors of Daum Residence Hall, which sits next to Burge Residence Hall on Clinton Street and is connected to Blank Honors Center for those honor students who live there.

Upgrades to Daum, which was built in 1964, would include new flooring and paint in the student rooms and corridors and renovation of elevator lobbies. Student room closets would be replaced and modernized, and each room would get new acoustical ceilings, lighting, draperies, panels, and towel bars, according to regent documents.

The board also will consider approving a Currier Steam Tunnel project that would reconstruct about 435 lineal feet of the tunnel that runs north of the T. Anne Clearly walkway and a $5.3 million 'reverse osmosis system project” to address rising nitrate levels in the Iowa River.

As proposed, according to regent documents, the university would install a reverse osmosis water filtration system within its existing water plant, which treats, monitors, and supplies water to the entire campus - including the UI Hospitals and Clinics.

'To stay within the regulated maximum nitrate levels during peak nitrate seasons, the river water must be blended with lower nitrate water from a well that produces water from the Jordan Aquifer,” according to a regents report. 'A reverse osmosis filtration system will reduce nitrates and improve overall water quality without reliance on the Jordan Aquifer well.”

The system was recommended by a Howard R. Green Inc. report in June to 'ensure continued compliance with water quality regulations” and to improve overall campus water quality.

The Board of Regents will consider approving the projects Thursday, during the second day of its two-day meeting on the UI campus.