Helping the Twins Hit a "Green" Grand Slam

Pentair partnered with the major league baseball Minnesota Twins in 2010 to develop and install the ballpark's innovative Rain Water Recycle System (RWRS), one of the highest-profile sustainable water solutions in sports. The RWRS captures, conserves and reuses rain water for irrigating the playing field and washing down the stadium seats, thereby reducing the ballpark's need for municipal water by over 50 percent. This effort helped the ballpark to qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification and saves more than two million gallons of water annually.

OUR SOLUTION

The rain water and irrigation water within the ballpark's seven-acre collection area percolates through the ball field's underground drainage system and is filtered and stored in a 12-foot-diameter cistern buried beneath the field's warning track.

The water is further filtered with Pentair's AquaLine™ Filtration System and then disinfected using Ultraviolet (UV) Light technology and an Ultrafiltration (UF) process. Chlorine is then added to the water to maintain sterility. The water goes to a holding tank, where it is re-circulated through another UV Light Disinfection System to maintain water quality. The use of UV in combination with chlorine helps to minimize the amount of chlorine needed to maintain sterility throughout the system.

Treated water accumulates in the holding tank and overflows back to the cistern until it is needed to irrigate the field or wash down the lower bowl of the stadium. The system is designed to allow the irrigation of two field zones simultaneously for two hours (250 gallons per minute) or a single field zone for four hours (125 gallons per minute). The RWRS also is capable of supplying all of the wash down water for Target Field's lower seating bowl. The system's performance and water quality can be remotely monitored via the Web.

Pentair's assistance played a pivotal role in helping the ballpark qualify for LEED certification. The U.S. Green Building Council awarded Target Field LEED Silver Certification, making it only the second ballpark in major league baseball to attain this lofty standard. Target Field's point total was also the highest ever attained, making it the greenest ballpark in America.

Together, the Minnesota Twins and Pentair have hit an environmental home run.