From Emergency Response to Long-Term Partnership
Seven Seas Water Group’s projects in the U.S. Virgin Islands reflect a journey from emergency response to building trust, driving expansion, and fostering resilience through long-term partnerships.
At the start, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) relied largely on thermal desalination for drinking water, a technology that was more viable in an era of lower fuel prices. As the USVI plants aged, however, not only did fossil fuel prices become unmanageable, but the largely outmoded plants began to demand repair and replacement. The complexities and long timelines of projects implemented with a traditional design-bid-build approach, however, made timely action difficult.
Ultimately, breakdowns and a resulting water-supply crisis forced emergency action, and WAPA turned to Seven Seas. With its fleet of quick-deploying modular desalination units, Seven Seas provided seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) units to end the crisis.
A study by the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design found that the Seven Seas plant ‘performs above the industry norm both in producing freshwater that is of exceptionally good quality and in monitoring its effluent into the sea.” Witnessing the efficiency of Seven Seas’ SWRO technology and the advantages of their in-house financing, WAPA officials recognized the value of their collaboration. This led to an expansion of their partnership, encompassing more projects and extended agreements.
The USVI and Seven Seas have grown together, supporting the islands’ thriving tourism with reliable infrastructure. Highlighting this partnership is the robust design and construction of the desalination plants. Notably, the Seven Seas plant in St. Thomas is the first certified resilient water treatment plant in the Caribbean.
Deepening the ties between the community, WAPA, and the company, Seven Seas created two scholarships in process technology and four internships. It has also employed two graduates of the new process technology program at the University of the Virgin Islands.
Taken together, our partnerships with WAPA in the USVI are a case study in rapid response, innovation, efficiency, trust, community, resilience, and prosperity.
Island of St. Croix Project
Location:Richmond Facility, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Customer: Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA)
Solutions: Six sets of mobile seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination units delivered via a build-own-operate (BOO) contract
Capacity: 1.5 million GPD (5,677 m³/d)
Modular SWRO units deliver 1.5 million GPD
The WAPA on St. Croix reached out to Seven Seas for a temporary solution to ensure a constant water supply when it scheduled repairs to an existing thermal desalination plant.
Seven Seas recommended mobile SWRO units to quickly meet the need with no CAPEX using Seven Seas’ Water-as-a-Service® offering. Within 92 days, Seven Seas had commissioned a plant with six highly efficient SWRO units. Under this arrangement, responsibility for managing and operating the new facility fell to Seven Seas, removing the burden from WAPA while ensuring a long-term dependable water supply at a guaranteed price.
After the SWRO installation began delivering the promised capacity at a significantly lower cost than expected, simultaneously freeing up WAPA resources, WAPA asked Seven Seas to expand plant capacity from 500,000 GPD (1,892 m3/d) to 1.5 million GPD (5,677 m3/d) and to lengthen the term of the contract to allow for the refurbishment of additional thermal units.
The Seven Seas plant, which was engineered to maximize uptime, produces potable water with total dissolved solids below 300 ppm from a feedwater source with 35,000 ppm. The plant’s design is the most energy-efficient option on the market, with the reverse osmosis (RO) process using approximately half the power that most containerized RO units use, ensuring a cost-effective temporary water supply and responsibly stewarding resources.
29 days to water, 48 days to full capacity
On the island of St. Thomas, a thermal desalination plant failure produced a drinking water supply emergency that demanded quick action to meet community needs until a permanent plant already under construction could be completed.
The Virgin Islands National Guard quickly provided eight desalination units as a stopgap, but their 320,000 GPD (1,208 m3/d) capacity only amounted to a fraction of the 1.8 MGD (6,813 m3/d) needed to supply businesses, 5,500 residents, and hundreds of thousands of tourists.
Due to Seven Seas’ reputation and active presence in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, WAPA reached out to bring life on the island back to normal before peak tourist season. Seven Seas quickly launched a two-phase installation, commissioning the first phase in only 29 days to ease the crisis. Only 48 days after signing, the complete plant of eight containerized units had ended the crisis, meeting WAPA’s target of 2 MGD (7,570m3/d) of fresh drinking water, enough to also begin filling empty storage tanks.
The temporary containerized plant maintained critical water to the Virgin Islands community and tourism until a permanent SWRO facility could be commissioned.
Island of St. Thomas Project
Location: Randolph E. Harley Power Plant, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Customer: Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA)
Technology: 8 containerized SWRO desalination units, build-own-operate (BOO) contract
Capacity: 2 MGD (7,570 m³/d)
Ultrapure Water to Power the Virgin Islands
Location: St. Croix and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Customer: Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA)
Technology: BWRO and Electrodeionization
Capacity: 850,000 GPD (3,217 m³/d)
29 days to water, 48 days to full capacity
On the island of St. Thomas, a thermal desalination plant failure produced a drinking water supply emergency that demanded quick action to meet community needs until a permanent plant already under construction could be completed.
The Virgin Islands National Guard quickly provided eight desalination units as a stopgap, but their 320,000 GPD (1,208 m3/d) capacity only amounted to a fraction of the 1.8 MGD (6,813 m3/d) needed to supply businesses, 5,500 residents, and hundreds of thousands of tourists.
Due to Seven Seas’ reputation and active presence in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, WAPA reached out to bring life on the island back to normal before peak tourist season. Seven Seas quickly launched a two-phase installation, commissioning the first phase in only 29 days to ease the crisis. Only 48 days after signing, the complete plant of eight containerized units had ended the crisis, meeting WAPA’s target of 2 MGD (7,570m3/d) of fresh drinking water, enough to also begin filling empty storage tanks.
The temporary containerized plant maintained critical water to the Virgin Islands community and tourism until a permanent SWRO facility could be commissioned.
Water When You Need It, Where You Need It
Seven Seas delivers rapid and expert solutions to water emergencies worldwide. Leveraging decades of experience and a vast network of contacts and suppliers, we can replicate the swift response seen on St. Thomas anywhere globally. Our flexible offerings, including Water as a Service®, BOO, BOOT, P3, and plant acquisition, prioritize performance and ensure optimal outcomes. Contact Seven Seas today to initiate a high-speed response or build a long-term partnership. We help communities thrive by improving water infrastructure, fostering economic growth, and safeguarding the environment.
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