HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC () – The Town of Hilton Head and Hilton Head Public Service District (PSD) broke ground on a new reverse osmosis drinking water well.

The well is at the former Hilton Head Island Welcome Center site. It will be drilled approximately 600 feet deep into the brackish Middle Floridan Aquifer.

It will increase the capacity of the treatment capacity in its Reverse Osmosis (RO) Drinking Water Treatment Facility on Jenkins Island facility from 4 million to 6 million gallons a day.

The PSD’s RO plant has been in service since 2009. The project is necessary to ensure the island’s long-term water supply in the face of ongoing saltwater intrusion into the shallower Upper Floridan Aquifer, which had been the island’s traditional source of drinking water. The PSD has lost 10 of its 14 wells into the Upper Floridan Aquifer to saltwater intrusion since 2000.

Officials say this project is key to ensuring the island’s long-term water supply.

“The crucial thing is this is Hilton Head relying on its own groundwater for its water future,” said Pete Nardi, the Genenal Manager of Hilton Head PSD. “So it’s our highest quality groundwater. It’s our highest quality drinking water that we can have because we’re treating it in that reverse osmosis plant, which is a leading technology for treating public drinking water supply.”

The project is being funded in part by a $10-million grant from the South Carolina Infrastructure Improvement Program. It also includes constructing a second Aquifer Storage & Recovery (ASR) well for the PSD.

ASR is a supply technique that allows more than 250 million gallons of treated drinking water to be stored in the Middle Floridan Aquifer during winter months of low demand and then withdrawn and retreated for distribution during the spring and summer months of higher demand. It is a key asset to help speed recovery from natural disasters such as hurricanes.

The ASR well will be constructed on the Ashmore Tract. Both the new drinking water well for the RO plant and the ASR well are being constructed on land provided by the Town of Hilton Head Island. The project also includes constructing pipelines to convey the water from the wells into the PSD’s water distribution system.

“It is making certain that we have the right assets in place,” said Hilton Head Island Mayor Alan Perry. “Whether it’s this one where we’re pumping water from or if it’s another one, we’re putting water into it so that we can pull from it later. It’s about understanding what the cycle is.”

Drivers are asked to use caution in the vicinity of the construction due to construction vehicles entering and exiting the site. The work is anticipated to conclude by Fall 2025.