Without water, there is no life! Here on Earth, we are struggling to replenish our aquifers, source of approximately half of Earth’s drinking water. Research has shown that Mars contains water in the form of ice, vapor and potentially liquid, deep underground and at its poles. And although the idea of colonizing Mars may sound fascinating to scientists and citizens alike for a variety of reasons, today the solution is not relocating to Mars, but recharging our aquifers.
The Potomac Aquifer is a confined aquifer that lies beneath all of Hampton Roads and beyond and is larger than Lake Superior. Lying mostly within the Virginia Coastal Plain, it also extends to parts of Maryland and North Carolina. The aquifer is a mixture of sand, silt and clay with varying degrees of permeability restricting its ability to recharge naturally as we draw more water from the aquifer than we replace. Although rainwater reaches the aquifer at one small fall zone, it will take thousands of years for rainwater to reach the depths from which we withdraw water.
Early settlers dug wells that did not require pumps due to the natural water pressure from the aquifers. This pressure provided the settlers with seemingly unlimited sources of water and making the use of valves feasible. Today pumps are required to draw out the water we need. Due to the ever-expanding populations drawn to Hampton Roads, in part due to water availability, there is no longer enough natural water pressure to push aquifer water to the ground surface above.
Additionally, as water levels in the aquifer are depleted, layers of clay compact, causing the land to sink, a phenomenon known as land subsidence. Land subsidence also contributes to the increased susceptibility of coastal flooding. Nearly 50 percent of Hampton Roads subsidence is due to the withdrawal of water from the Potomac Aquifer. The aquifer depletion also contributes to the intrusion of salt water into the aquifer along our coastline.
The Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) has developed a program to assist with the water demands of a growing population called SWIFT — the Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow. HRSD serves nearly two million people around the world’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, and treats 225 million gallons of water a day.
By creating a loop cycle, pumping water from the aquifer used as drinking water and then discarded as wastewater, treating that wastewater to beyond drinking water standards, and returning treated wastewater that matches the chemical composition of the aquifer to the aquifer, HRSD and SWIFT will ensure current and future generations will have drinking water for decades to come.
Launched in 2016, when completed, the SWIFT project at the Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk will provide highly treated water from seven area treatment plants enabling HRSD to recharge the aquifer with 34 million gallons of water per day. The project will slow or reduce, and possibly reverse, land subsidence and provide enough pressure to reduce saltwater intrusion into the aquifer.
The first of the seven SWIFT facilities is located at the James River Treatment Plant and includes the addition of improved advanced water treatment processes to produce highly treated SWIFT® water. The SWIFT project takes water that would otherwise be discharged in the James, Elizabeth or York rivers and treats that water to meet and exceed drinking water quality standards.
The James River Treatment Plant in Newport News has an estimated completion date of 2026 and will return approximately 16 million gallons of treated wastewater into the aquifer each day. According to Jay Bernas, HRSD general manager, “This facility will be one of the most advanced water treatment facilities in Virginia.”
In addition, Bernas is excited about one project that will include approximately two miles of new walking trails at Riverview Farm Park to be completed in two phases. When completed, the new trail system will include connections from Riverview Farm Park to Menchville Marina and trails along Flax Mill Creek, the James River and Deep Creek.
At project completion of the larger program, more than 100 million gallons of highly treated water will be pumped from 19 wells, 30 inches in diameter, 1,500 feet deep, into the aquifer and will reduce the amount of nutrients dumped into the Chesapeake Bay.
The SWIFT Research Center, located at HRSD’s Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk, is now open to the public and currently recharges the Potomac Aquifer with approximately one million gallons of SWIFT® water daily. Research facility tours are scheduled on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Virtual tours are available on HRSD’s website.
TO THE POINT:
HRSD SWIFT Research Center
Address: 6909 Armstead Rd., Suffolk, VA, 23435
Phone: 757-460-2261
Email: SWIFT@HRSD.com
Website: hrsd.com/swift
Facebook: facebook.com/HRSDV
