HAMPTON ROADS’
COASTAL AQUIFER RECHARGE PROGRAM
H
ampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) is unusual in several ways. The southeastern Virginia wastewater utility is governed by an apolitical, governor-appointed commission; it covers a broad area encompassing multiple municipalities; and it bills its customers directly, all of which provide it with a certain independence and regionwide outlook. Moreover, HRSD has embarked on an ambitious aquifer recharge program. Through its Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow (SWIFT) program, HRSD is putting its highly treated effluent through additional advanced water treatment processes to produce SWIFT water—water that meets drinking water standards—and using it to recharge the coastal plain aquifer, thus
10 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
variety of jobs for my whole career, originally in the Navy and then in local government as a public works director. I have been in the Hampton Roads area the whole time. I was aware of the regional wastewater treatment agency, HRSD, and was looking for an opportunity to contribute, so when the general manager position opened, I pursued it. I was fortunate enough to be selected in 2006, and I have been able to take advantage of the professional relationships I’ve built in the Hampton Roads area in my new job and have continued to expand them in wastewater.
Ted Henifin: I pursued an education in civil engineering and have worked in the public sector in a
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about HRSD’s services and its service area.
simultaneously reducing HRSD’s discharges into the Chesapeake Bay, replenishing the region’s groundwater supplies, and possibly slowing or reversing land subsidence. In this interview, Ted Henifin, general manager of HRSD, tells Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about the motivations behind SWIFT, its accomplishments, and the developments he expects to see over the next 100 years of wastewater treatment.
