Hampton Roads Sanitation District Breaks Ground on SWIFT Research Center
The SWIFT Research Center is an advanced treatment facility that incorporates an 8-step process to prepare the water for recharging the Potomac Aquifer.
Members of the project team, HRSD, and Virginia officials broke ground on the SWIFT facility (click image for video).
Sustainable architectural features will be integrated into multiple aspects of the building design, seen here in a rendering, to provide a facility that communicates environmental leadership.
The design team utilized a Building Information Model to develop a design and effectively understand how each component works together within the facility and integrates within the site before construction began.
The rapid mixing, coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation components are critical in establishing water quality for the downstream advanced treatment processes.
Biofiltration serves multiple roles in the SWIFT facility, as the major pathogen barrier and as an opportunity for removal of trace organics and post-ozone biostabilization.
The ceremony included virtual reality tours of the SWIFT Research Center.
(SUFFOLK, VA – April 19, 2017) – Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD), together with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward, and several other state and local representatives, broke ground on the new Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow (SWIFT) Research Center at the Nansemond Treatment Plant on March 31st.
The ceremony celebrated the advancing of HRSD’s SWIFT initiative, which will recharge the Potomac Aquifer with purified, reclaimed water, delivering a host of benefits to the surrounding community:
- Replenishing eastern Virginia’s groundwater supply, increasing the region’s water supply stability.
- Supporting Chesapeake Bay restoration by diverting water from disposal to beneficial reuse.
- Reducing the rate of land subsidence (sinking or settling of the ground surface due to subsurface changes, such as reduction of groundwater levels), mitigating some of the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities in Hampton Roads.
HRSD General Manager, Ted Henifin added, “Such an ambitious initiative would not be possible without supportive partnerships like those we celebrate today with the Commonwealth, the USGS, the City of Hampton and our talented design-build team of Crowder-Hazen. Together we continue to move toward multiple sustainable solutions to the water challenges facing our region.”
The SWIFT Research Center, a design-build project by Hazen and Sawyer and Crowder Construction, is an advanced treatment facility that incorporates an 8-step process to prepare the water for recharging the Potomac Aquifer. The design team utilized a Building Information Model to develop a design and effectively understand how each component works together within the facility and integrates within the site before construction began. The design also ensures that plant operations will remain unaffected by construction and incorporation of the new facility. Sustainable architectural features will be integrated into multiple aspects of the building design to provide a facility that communicates environmental leadership.
The facility is expected to open in April 2018 and will be able to purify one million gallons of water per day using advanced treatment processes. This purified water will match the quality of the existing groundwater and will be used to recharge the Potomac Aquifer, demonstrating the effectiveness of groundwater replenishment on land subsidence. It will also be used as a research and learning facility for training HRSD staff and providing public education. Successful completion and operation will provide guidance for the future full-scale SWIFT program implementation of over 100 million gallons of water per day of managed aquifer recharge.
For more information on the SWIFT Research Center, please contact Dwayne Amos.
