Author: jsellers

Residents in the Village Creek subdivision of St. Simons Island may have recently noticed a rumbling sound emanating from the Water Production Facility operated by the BGJWSC. This facility, located at 161 S Harrington Rd, is the home of the Water Distribution Division staff offices, the 15 staff members that help ensure that you continue to have access to water; a 300,000 gallon ground water storage tank, which is presently being rehabilitated; and an out-of-service well, which is 905 feet deep.

The existing well is the only well north of the Sea Island Causeway that could adequately supply the growth on the north end of St. Simons Island. However, due to a casing failure, this well was shut down in November, 2013. A new well is in the process of being drilled and will provide quality drinking water out of the Floridan aquifer, a deep pocket of water located under the southern US from South Carolina, southeastern Georgia, Florida and southern Alabama. Providing water from this area of the aquifer to residents on the north end of St. Simons Island will ensure that the distribution system will be balanced with other wells located on St. Simons Island, leading to a more consistent water pressure system-wide, lower demand for chlorine used as a disinfectant while water is stationary in the mains, and providing redundancy to the system in case of the failure of another source.

On the evening of Monday, April 13, 2015, multiple residents on Villager Dr and Villager Ct reported a concern about the sound and vibrations coming from the plant. This was in fact the drilling of a test hole used to confirm placement of the surface casing that is required for the first 600 feet of this well, which will ultimately be 800 feet deep. The process to dig to this depth is intentionally slow and consistent, with much care invested in ensuring that the drilling rig or casing is not damaged, which might create the need for digging another well. As such, our contractor, Woodrow Sapp Well Drilling, will be operating the drilling rig 24 hours a day from 8:00 on Monday, April 20 until 5:00 on Monday, April 27. At that time, the well digging project should be complete and the ambient noise will be gone.

The BGJWSC recognizes that this drilling schedule may be an inconvenience for many of you and ask for your forgiveness in advance. We hope that you will be understanding and agree with us that the life-giving water provided by the well will reap benefits for many years to come as a result of this progress.