2030 Plan - Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority

a. Sources
The main water intake is located on Bull Creek which carries about 60% of the water
flowing through the Great Pee Dee and Little Pee Dee Rivers. The Great Pee Dee drains
11,620 square miles in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The Little Pee Dee
which enters the Great Pee Dee River just above Bull Creek drains 2,790 square miles of
this drainage area. Minimum flow in the Great Pee Dee just above Bull Creek during the
drought of 2002 was approximately 1,100 cubic feet per second or 710 MGD.
Bull Creek is an abundant source of high quality raw water that is less costly to treat than
most of the slow moving low flow rivers in and around Horry County. A second water
intake is located on the ICWW in Myrtle Beach. The ICWW is fed from the Great Pee
Dee and Waccamaw Rivers.
Marion wells draw water from the Black Creek Aquifer.
b. Bull Creek Regional Water Plant
The plant is located on a 5,000
acre site in the Bucksport
community between the
Waccamaw River and Bull
Creek. The plant was
constructed in 1991 with an
initial capacity of 21 MGD. It
has since been expanded to 26 MGD in 1996 and to 45 MGD in 2000. The Bull Creek
plant uses a “conventional” treatment process of coagulation, flocculation, settling,
filtration, and disinfection. However, this plant is unique in that flocculation and
sedimentation occur in a patented up flow clarification process directly followed by
Greenleaf filters eliminating the usual piping arrangement. Fluoride is added to the
finished water for recommended dental health protection. The by-product of the
treatment process, alum sludge, is thickened and land applied to a designated centipede
grass turf farm.
c. Myrtle Beach Water Plant
The plant is located on the
ICWW in Myrtle Beach. It
was constructed in 1986 with
an initial capacity of 21 MGD.
It has since been expanded to
40 MGD. The plant also uses a
conventional treatment process.
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