Trenching to tie-in MWVCRC seawater system to the Long Marine Lab

This has two advantages:

· COST: Inland facilities must truck their salt water to their pools in large mobile tanks. This can become very expensive. We have a constant, fresh supply from the ocean.

· NO RECIRCULATION: Inland facilities must disinfect and recirculate their water. We have the capability to do this in case our supply is disrupted, but running a UV disinfectant system on a 24 hour basis is a huge drain in energy in comparison to constantly circulating fresh salt water.

The process actually starts down at the end of the Marine Science Campus by the Long Marine Lab.

Two large pumps suck in salt water from the sea and expel salt water that has been circulating throughout tanks at different facilities.

The incoming water goes through a series of filtration systems. The first filters are intended to filter out large particulates, and look like a series of horizontal bars with washers wrapped around them. These grates filter out seaweed and similar matter.

Somebody does have the unpleasant task of diving down into the filter area to clean the large intake filters.

Father down the intake process, a series of sand filters separate out the finer material. These smaller filters are built to filter and then self-clean by way of a backflushing action from the sea water. This works more in theory than in practice.