An upgraded seawater system for the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island

University Of Georgia, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Georgia is awarded a grant to renovate the seawater delivery system at the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island (http://ugami.uga.edu/). Running seawater is a vital resource for the UGA Marine Institute (UGAMI), which is a world-renowned field destination that serves researchers and educators from throughout the U.S. and beyond. However, the current system is unreliable and has reached the end of its useful life. The intake of the seawater system is in an area that is extremely shallow during low tides, such that the pumps can run dry. Moreover, the advanced age and degraded condition of the storage and delivery system render them unreliable and difficult to maintain. The upgrade will involve modifying the present system so that it only pumps seawater during high tide, and adding larger storage tanks to be able to provide seawater when the pumps are not running. The new system will also include pre-filtration, a disinfection unit, and a control and alarm system, and will be designed with a capacity of 1.5 times that of the current system in order to support future growth. These upgrades address a critical need and are necessary for the continued operation of UGAMI as a viable field station. UGAMI serves as the field site for researchers from numerous institutions, who are conducting studies of coastal ecosystems to understand how they function, to track how they change over time, and to predict how they might be affected in the future. They publish approximately 40 scientific papers per year and also train graduate students at both the master's and doctoral level. It also hosts upwards of 2000 undergraduate students per year from universities throughout the country, as well as teacher training and other workshops. The upgraded seawater system will benefit virtually all of these users, who require running seawater for everything from rinsing samples to storing live organisms to conducting long-term experiments. It will also allow UGAMI to accommodate additional usage from longer-term residential courses, which are now being planned.