Newport News: Brackish Water Gets Fresh

Rapid growth was straining freshwater supplies in Newport News, Virginia. Studies showed Newport News Waterworks that they could be facing a 30 mgd deficit by 2040 and ran a 50% chance of depleting existing supplies through 2005. Since surface supplies are difficult to develop, Newport News Waterworks and its consultant Camp Dresser & McKee, Cambridge, Mass., decided to look not around, but down for its new water source. In 1995, the Waterworks began a pilot program to determine the potential for drawing and desalting up to 7 mgd from the local Upper and Middle Potomac aquifers. Test showed that a reverse osmosis plant could desalinate water at competitive prices, so in May, Newport News Waterworks began construction on a $13 million project that will feature a plant, six production wells and eleven monitor wells. The project is scheduled for completion in August 1998.