Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority
Saxon ends 30-year career on ambitious note
Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority’s General Manager Ed Saxon, PE retires in February of 2019 with thirty years of service to the Authority and to the community. His final year with BJWSA is marked with numerous milestones – a testament to his dedication to their mission to Inspire Trust and enhance Public Health.
BJWSA achieved more than one million safe work hours without an injury resulting in a lost workday. This remarkable record is a result of every employee’s commitment to safety and compliance with BJWSA’s robust safety program, and employees are laser focused on achieving the 2,000,000 safe hours mark.
A five-year strategic plan, Crystal Clear 2022, prioritized the galvanized/cast iron replacement program which resulted in BJWSA’s commitment of $4M/year for the next two years to fund full replacement of these troublesome lines. Other initiatives of the plan include enhanced call center metrics, new metering and bill-paying initiatives along with increased investment in the workforce coupled with enhanced predictive maintenance and asset management strategies.
The $30M Hardeeville Water Reclamation Facility (HWRF) expansion project came online in July. To demonstrate our commitment to sustainability, BJWSA designed and constructed this project to achieve the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision rating system’s Bronze award, the first of its kind in South Carolina. This innovative facility provides additional capacity to support new businesses and industries moving to the area and produces a highly treated, reclaimed water quality effluent.
Additionally, a project is underway to divert wastewater from a growing Lady’s Island to the Port Royal Water Reclamation Facility (PRWRF.) BJWSA’s wastewater facility on St Helena currently receives these flows and as a result, is nearing capacity. This $6M diversion project, which will come online in the next six months, costs $3M less than expanding the St Helena plant to meet the future needs of Lady’s Island. PRWRF has sufficient capacity and is a state of the art facility designed for advanced treatment.
To protect our drinking water source, BJWSA became a founding member of the Savannah River Clean Water Fund (SRCWF.) We are working with four utilities in SC and GA to create one of the largest bi-state utility collaboration projects of its kind with a goal of establishing conservation easements on large parcels adjacent to the river in the lower Savannah Basin. By leveraging a SRCWF contribution of $534,125 with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the SC Conservation Bank and The Nature Conservancy, we are close to executing our first conservation easement on a 13,681-acre parcel that has a value of $10,984,000.
Saxon leaves the Authority poised for growth and prepared for the future of the water and wastewater industry.
“It has been a true joy to live and work in our wonderful slice of paradise and an honor to serve the citizens of Beaufort and Jasper counties for 30 years,” he says. “It’s amazing to reflect on the growth that BJWSA has experienced, growing from a small water agency in 1989 that had 30 employees, annual revenues of ~$3M and ~$20M in assets to the fifth largest utility in South Carolina with 200 employees, ~$58M in revenues and assets totaling more than $670M. Thanks to a great group of dedicated BJWSA employees who are committed to BJWSA becoming a leading Utility of the Future.”
BJWSA achieved more than one million safe work hours without an injury resulting in a lost workday. This remarkable record is a result of every employee’s commitment to safety and compliance with BJWSA’s robust safety program, and employees are laser focused on achieving the 2,000,000 safe hours mark.
A five-year strategic plan, Crystal Clear 2022, prioritized the galvanized/cast iron replacement program which resulted in BJWSA’s commitment of $4M/year for the next two years to fund full replacement of these troublesome lines. Other initiatives of the plan include enhanced call center metrics, new metering and bill-paying initiatives along with increased investment in the workforce coupled with enhanced predictive maintenance and asset management strategies.
The $30M Hardeeville Water Reclamation Facility (HWRF) expansion project came online in July. To demonstrate our commitment to sustainability, BJWSA designed and constructed this project to achieve the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision rating system’s Bronze award, the first of its kind in South Carolina. This innovative facility provides additional capacity to support new businesses and industries moving to the area and produces a highly treated, reclaimed water quality effluent.
Additionally, a project is underway to divert wastewater from a growing Lady’s Island to the Port Royal Water Reclamation Facility (PRWRF.) BJWSA’s wastewater facility on St Helena currently receives these flows and as a result, is nearing capacity. This $6M diversion project, which will come online in the next six months, costs $3M less than expanding the St Helena plant to meet the future needs of Lady’s Island. PRWRF has sufficient capacity and is a state of the art facility designed for advanced treatment.
To protect our drinking water source, BJWSA became a founding member of the Savannah River Clean Water Fund (SRCWF.) We are working with four utilities in SC and GA to create one of the largest bi-state utility collaboration projects of its kind with a goal of establishing conservation easements on large parcels adjacent to the river in the lower Savannah Basin. By leveraging a SRCWF contribution of $534,125 with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the SC Conservation Bank and The Nature Conservancy, we are close to executing our first conservation easement on a 13,681-acre parcel that has a value of $10,984,000.
Saxon leaves the Authority poised for growth and prepared for the future of the water and wastewater industry.
“It has been a true joy to live and work in our wonderful slice of paradise and an honor to serve the citizens of Beaufort and Jasper counties for 30 years,” he says. “It’s amazing to reflect on the growth that BJWSA has experienced, growing from a small water agency in 1989 that had 30 employees, annual revenues of ~$3M and ~$20M in assets to the fifth largest utility in South Carolina with 200 employees, ~$58M in revenues and assets totaling more than $670M. Thanks to a great group of dedicated BJWSA employees who are committed to BJWSA becoming a leading Utility of the Future.”
About Ed Saxon, PE
• Ed Saxon, PE
• BS and MS, University of South Carolina; Mechanical Engineering
• United States Air Force
• BJWSA since February 1989
• President, South Carolina Water Quality Association; Vice-chair, North American
Society of Trenchless Technology; board member, Southern Carolina Regional
Development Alliance; recipient of William T. Linton Service Award, Water
Environment Association of South Carolina
• Board member and past president, Sea Island Rotary Club; former board
member and campaign chair for the United Way of the Lowcountry; former
board member, Beaufort Regional Chamber and Economic Alliance; board
member, Beaufort Water Festival since 1991, Commodore in 2001
• Active parishioner of St. Peter’s Catholic Church; devoted husband to Melaine;
father to Ryan, Eric and Jessica and grandfather to Bailey and Zoe
