MEB’s scope includes the installation of yard piping, valve vaults, cast-in-place concrete, mechanical piping, and backwash pumps at 10 well locations both on and off the James River Treatment Plant site. Yard piping includes potable water, sanitary sewer gravity and force main, SWIFT water to the well, and well backflush piping, totaling over 29,000 LF of piping. MEB crews are performing all work for the well sites, and MEB’s project management team is coordinating with the well drillers.
The SWIFT program takes highly treated water that would otherwise be discharged into the Elizabeth, James, or York River and puts it through advanced water treatment to meet drinking water quality standards. SWIFT Water™ will be used to replenish the depleted Potomac aquifer—the primary source of groundwater throughout eastern Virginia. Full-scale SWIFT will require upgrades to HRSD’s plants across Hampton Roads.
The SWIFT initiative will have many environmental benefits, such as increasing the available groundwater for use in the Potomac Aquifer, reducing total pollutants placed into local waterways, and possibly stopping or even reversing land subsidence in Hampton Roads to reduce flooding potential.