Earth Data Awarded Multi-Year SWIFT Contract

Earth Data Incorporated, was recently selected by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) as lead consultant for its Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow (SWIFT) recharge and monitoring well services project. The southeastern Virginia based project is expected to last 10 to 12 years and will ultimately recharge the Potomac Aquifer with up to 100 million gallons per day (mgd) of SWIFT Water®—wastewater treated to meet drinking water standards and be compatible with the characteristics of the aquifer. 

SWIFT is HRSD’s innovative water treatment project designed to protect the region’s environment, enhance the sustainability of the region’s long-term groundwater supply and help address environmental pressures such as Chesapeake Bay restoration, relative sea level rise, and saltwater intrusion. SWIFT takes highly treated water that would otherwise be discharged into the Elizabeth, James, or York rivers and applies multiple advanced water treatment processes, which results in SWIFT Water®. The SWIFT Water® is then added to the Potomac Aquifer, which is the primary source of groundwater throughout eastern Virginia. 

This project, which is thought to be one of the largest drilling projects in the United States, attracted the attention of numerous large engineering firms from across the country. Earth Data was the only small business to contend for this highly coveted project, which includes planning services, design services, contract administration, geophysical logging services and field engineering and testing services for approximately 70 recharge wells and 30 monitoring wells. The large diameter recharge wells will range in depths up to 2,000 feet, each designed to inject as much as 2 mgd of highly treated wastewater. 

Earth Data Incorporated has been continually providing field-oriented hydrogeologic consulting services throughout the Mid-Atlantic region for more than 45 years and has completed more than 800 projects in the areally extensive Potomac Aquifer. For the HRSD SWIFT project, Earth Data selected HDR Engineering, Inc., Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., and ASRus as engineering and hydrogeologic subconsulting partners to provide specialized support services over the life of the project. “The consolidated Earth Data project team has unmatched experience in the Potomac Aquifer and brings decades of managed aquifer recharge design, injection well permitting, and civil engineering site design experience to the project,” according to Earth Data president Mark Williams.