Location: Governors Harbour, Grand Cayman
Capacity: Original facility 2.0 million US gallons per day (7,200 m3 per day)
New facility 1.0 million US gallons per day (3,800 m3 per day), future build out to 2.0 million US gallons per day (7,200 m3 per day)New facility 1.0 million US gallons per day (3,800 m3 per day), future build out to 2.0 million US gallons per day (7,200 m3 per day)
Commissioned: 1990, 2009 and 2018
The Company’s first desalination equipment was located near this site, which originally housed a wastewater treatment plant. Mechanical vapor compression distillation units were installed on this site starting in 1979. Seawater for these units came from an open sea intake located just off of Seven Mile Beach and the water produced was used to service some of the first tourist properties located along Seven Mile Beach.
Grand Cayman has very limited low salinity groundwater resources and prior to the Company’s introduction of desalination to the island, homes, businesses and hotels relied primarily on rainwater collected in cisterns. The introduction of desalination by the Company was instrumental in assisting in the island’s property development growth and prosperity over the years.
In 1990, the Company commissioned its first seawater reverse osmosis plant and the old vapor compression units were decommissioned and taken out of service over the next several years. The initial capacity of the reverse osmosis plant was 600,000 US gallons per day. Over the years, the equipment was been expanded on several occasions such that the original facility produced over 1.2 million US gallons per day of potable water. An additional adjacent facility was commissioned in 2009 with a capacity of 2.0 million US gallons per day. The original facility was decommissioned. In 2018, a new desalination facility was built on the same site, with a capacity of 1.0 million gallons per day, with a future build out of 2.0 million US gallons per day. The total current supply of potable water from the site to 3.0 million US gallons per day.
In addition to the desalination equipment, this site also includes 4 potable water storage tanks, 3 one million US gallon and 1 two million US gallon; disinfection equipment and distribution equipment. This facility is one of three located in the Company’s distribution service area for Grand Cayman. The drinking water produced by these facilities is distributed via the Company’s pipelines to homes, businesses, hotels and tourist accommodations in the area, under an exclusive long-term license with the Cayman Islands Government to produce, distribute and sell potable water.
