From staff reports
A project to double the Purrysburg Water Treatment Plant from a capacity of 15 million gallons per day (MGD) to 30 MGD began February 22, when officials for Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority (BJWSA) broke ground at the plant in Hardeeville.
Also present were the project’s contractor Reeves Young and design engineer Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC). The project is under the direction of Chief of Technical Services Kenneth Frazier and Director of Engineering Rebecca Bowyer, P.E.
This expansion will increase total water system production capacity 39% – from 39 MGD to 54 MGD. From its initial design phase in the 1990s, Purrysburg Water Treatment Plant was built for the future of the growing Lowcountry. When the plant opened in 2006, it boasted a design that could be expanded twice – each time adding 15 MGD.
Over the lifetime of the facility, Jasper County’s population has increased 35% and Beaufort County’s 30%. In recent years, BJWSA has added approximately 3,000 new customers annually. That growth shows no signs of slowing. BJWSA’s newly-adopted mission – to provide quality water and wastewater services to our current and future customers in the Lowcountry – was crafted with this growth – and the subsequent gravitas of their public health commission – at its heart.
Though completion of this first expansion is expected in the summer of 2025, BJWSA is looking at a variety of initiatives to stay ahead of demand and to prepare for the future of its 750-square-mile service area.
Over the next three years the Authority will spend more than $160 million in capital projects to maintain and grow the system. Other projects include:
– Increasing storage – both underground and with the Bluffton storage tank.
– Investing in more solar to reduce their carbon footprint.
– Educating customers to avoid unnecessary burdens on the system by avoiding peak morning hours for irrigating.
