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Hamilton Lakes Swim and Tennis Club dug deep to make a cost-effective change that will preserve more than 2 million gallons of city water.

During the past year, the club has been working on a water-reclamation and well project.

“We’re trying to be more green,” said Richard Cockcroft, the club’s vice president of the board of directors.

Last year, the club’s board of directors and various club members started to research how the club’s backwash from its three pools could be re-used for the club’s clay tennis courts instead of being pumped into the sewer system.

“We were pumping the water into a storm drain, and the city said we needed to pump it into the sewer, but we knew the sewers couldn’t handle that volume of water,” Cockcroft said.

Not only did the team figure out how to re-purpose and re-use that water, the club also has dug a well to refill the pools automatically and installed two tanks to hold dirty water to be cleaned and re-used as needed.

These changes have the potential to save the city more than 2 million gallons of water and cut the clubs’s water bill by nearly 80 percent.

“Hopefully, this will keep our dues down,” club manager Jean Eagan said.

In the past, the club has paid the city about $15,000 per year for water.

This project could cut that cost to $3,000, Cockcroft said.

The project has taken a year and $30,000 to complete.

“We believe we will see a return on our investment in two years,” Cockcroft said.

Hamilton Lakes board member Duncan Henshall said that this project grew from one thing into something bigger.

“It changed from simple cost saving to this,” he said.

While the club will save a lot of money, this is the first of several steps it is taking to “go green.”

“We’re also looking at alternative energy sources and capturing storm water,” Cockcroft said.

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373- 7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com