Sustainable Water Initiative For Tomorrow (SWIFT), Managed Aquifer Recharge Demonstration Project

Presented on Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Mark C. Lucas1 and Jamie Mitchell2, (1)Water/Wastewater Engineering, Jacobs Engineering Group, Boca Raton, FL, (2)Water Quality, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Virginia Beach, VA

The Coastal Plain Aquifer System of Virginia has experienced unsustainable groundwater withdrawals over the past several decades resulting in water level declines, regional land subsidence, and increasing vulnerability of supply wells to saltwater intrusion. Accordingly, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) is implementing the Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow (SWIFT) which will add multiple advanced water treatment processes (AWTP) to select HRSD wastewater treatment facilities, producing a highly treated water that exceeds drinking water standards and is compatible with the receiving aquifer. At full‐scale, HRSD intends to recharge over 100 million gallons per day (mgd) of SWIFT Water into the Potomac Aquifer System (PAS) using managed aquifer recharge (MAR) wells. SWIFT will significantly reduce the nutrient load to the Chesapeake Bay, while benefitting the region by limiting saltwater intrusion, reducing land subsidence, and providing a sustainable source of groundwater, a necessity for continued economic expansion in the region.

The SWIFT Research Center (SWIFTRC), a concept demonstration project located at HRSD’s Nansemond Treatment Plant, constitutes a 1 MGD AWTP Facility that will recharge a test MAR well. While the SWIFTRC has multiple objectives, one involves providing a significant period of operational data to demonstrate the viability of MAR in the area. The SWIFTRC will start recharging the PAS in the second quarter of 2018. Operation of the SWIFTRC will provide preliminary experiences on the following:

  • Aquifer conditioning around the MAR Well to stabilize clay minerals in the PAS
  • Evaluating ability of the PAS to accept the recharge water over months of MAR operations
  • Stabilizing reactive, metal-bearing minerals, insitu
  • Geochemical reactions involving mixing or recharge/aquifer mineral relations
  • Estimating travel time and migrating recharge profile across the PAS
  • The ability of the PAS to attenuate constituents in the recharge (soil aquifer treatment).

MP3 Presentation Slides

Mark C. Lucas
Water/Wastewater Engineering, Jacobs Engineering Group, Boca Raton, FL
Mr. Lucas has a B.S. and M.S. in Geology from Rutgers University. He has worked on ASR technology in the New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, and Gulf Coastal Plain Provinces for the last 15 years while employed at CH2M HILL.
Jamie Mitchell
Water Quality, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Virginia Beach, VA
Ms. Mitchell serves as Water Quality and Monitoring Manager for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and plays a key role in supervising treated water and groundwater monitoring activities at the SWIFT Demonstration Facility
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