The future source of Bermuda's water supplies will be from the sea if Watlington Waterworks latest scheme proves a success.

The new reverse osmosis plant on North Shore will be capable of providing a million gallons of water a day when it is up and running in summer.

Reverse osmosis is a method of turning salt water into water that can be used in homes and businesses.

And that will be a major boost to Bermuda's limited water supplies normally produced from rainwater and wells.

General Manager Mr. Doug Fetigan is certain the plant will be dealing with half a million gallons of water every day by April. He said: "It will double that capacity when it is needed.'' Sea water is pumped through wells from porous sandstone beneath North Shore providing the first of three filtration processes. Mr. Fetigan says the pumping of the water from the rocks is a natural process before it reaches the first filter at the plant.

The next stage is a battery of three multi-media filters which remove "suspended solids''. The water is then passed through a final polishing filtration step consisting of three micron filters.

Mr. Fetigan stressed that the finished brine will be used to feed energy recovery turbines providing 35 to 40 percent of the energy and thus helping with conservation.

The waste water is then piped 250 feet off the shore where it will be filtered out into the sea through a number of small pipes.

Mr. Fetigan said: "The Bermuda Biological Station will carry out a number of tests to make sure this will not cause any problems with the marine environment.'' The filtered water will then be piped to the main Watlington Waterworks on Parsons Lane in Devonshire. It is to be added to the main network of water supplying much of the Island.

Watlington supplies water to 75 percent of the hotels in Bermuda, the rest of its customers are in the City of Hamilton, a mix of offices and 1,000 private homes.

Mr. Fetigan said this should increase over the next five years with an expansion of the system into the West End of the Island.

Concerning the reverse osmosis plant, Mr. Fetigan said: "It is going to have a major impact having a half a million extra gallons of water in the system from April.

"It will mean an extra supply of water if there are problems although it will not have that much effect in severe droughts.'' He added that it will not mean people will be able to take more baths in the summer time and stressed that conserving water would still be a necessity. But Mr. Fetigan said: "This is the future for water in Bermuda. There will be more of these plants.'' TURNING ON THE WATER -- Watlington Waterworks general manager Mr. Doug Fetigan ready to turn on the new reverse osmosis plant on North Shore.