By ELLIOTT DONNER

Staff Writer

Tech is in front of a potentially huge problem that has been growing -- or sinking -- since the 1980s. The Sparta Aquifer is diminishing, and Tech's water usage is one of the problems.

"We are using too much water, and if we don't do something we are going to be in trouble," Dr. Gary Stokley, an associate professor of social sciences, said.

Tech uses water from the Sparta for the university's entire water system.

The Sparta is separate from the city water supply, Bruce Ayers, director of the physical plant, said.

Bobby Dowling, assistant director of intramural sports, said Tech uses the aquifer to water the football field, intramural fields, the campus and the golf course.

Dowling said the golf course is buying water from Grambling right now, which gets its water from the Sparta.

He also said there are no plans for an alternate water supply at the course right now.

"I'm skeptical about the size of the ponds on the course and their ability to use them for watering the course," Dowling said.

However, he said there is work in progress right now for a small reservoir to be put in Hideaway Park.

It will take water from a creek to water the football field.

"This reservoir is a long-range project," Ayers said. "It has some interfaces with the city of Ruston, and it is still in its early stages."

Ayers has been at Tech overseeing the water plant systems since 1983 and said he went to a meeting concerning the Sparta in the early '80s.

Ayers said there are three wells at Tech that supply the school's water supply.

Since Ayers started working at Tech, he said the static water levels of the three wells at the university have been dropping between one and two inches a year.

Tech is using this aquifer, along with the city of Ruston and surrounding cities such as Jonesboro and West Monroe, which are the locations of two major paper mills in Louisiana.

Stokely said the two mills use a lot of water for making paper products.

If these mills do not have water, they cannot run and there would be tons of jobs lost.

"This is an easy issue for students to miss," Stokley said. "How can Tech be a university with no water?"

Mike Gutman, a senior psychology major, said, "Just tell me what I need to do to save water and I'll do it. I don't want Tech to dry up."