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Hilton Head Public Service District dedicated its new Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Facility. Reverse osmosis, called “RO” for short, is a filtration process that removes salt and other minerals from drinking water. The new facility is on Jenkins Island, across from Windmill Harbour, on land provided by the Town of Hilton Head Island. The $12.5-million plant will use three new wells to draw water from the Middle Floridan Aquifer, which lies about 600 feet below ground. The water in the Middle Floridan is brackish and will be filtered in the RO facility. The plant can provide up to 3 million gallons of drinking water a day – about half of the PSD’s average daily demand — and is expandable to provide 6 million gallons a day.
Construction of the facility was necessary to counter the effects of saltwater intrusion into the utility’s current groundwater source — the 150-footdeep Upper Floridan Aquifer. Saltwater intrusion has been caused by the overpumping of the Upper Floridan Aquifer to serve the Savannah area’s water demands, the PSD said.
The overpumping pulls saltwater from the Port Royal Sound into the freshwater underground aquifer. The PSD has lost four Upper Floridan drinking water wells to saltwater intrusion since 2000.
