Few things are more important aboard a Navy ship than water. Some ships need it to create steam which drives the ship. Others need it to cool diesel engines and provide heat to working spaces during cold weather. The crew and embarked troops depend on it for cooking, laundry, drinking and showering. On rare occasions, water production aboard ship can be degraded, and personnel aboard may face the undesirable, morale sapping situation known as water hours.
Normal showers are no longer an option during water hours. Instead, Marines and sailors face a less endearing shower process – get wet, turn water off, get soapy, rinse off and leave. In fact, any excess water use is cut to zero as the crew works to conserve appropriate levels of water.
USS Gunston Hall faced the potential for water hours recently when a part for one of the two water production evaporators aboard needed replacement. Getting parts to ships on the high seas is a problem itself, and the one for the evaporator was going to take time to reach decks of the seasoned vessel.
But the Gunston Hall had an ace in the hole, or perhaps more appropriately, it had an ace in the hold.
Enter the Tactical Water Purification System and the “Waterdogs” of Combat Logistics Battalion 22. The system, embarked by CLB-22, is known as the TWPS (pronounced “twips”), and it’s designed for potable water production in a field environment, or to aid during humanitarian assistance operations.
While it is unconventional to employ the system aboard ship, the Marines were up to the challenge, according to Capt. Maureen P. Carr, the officer in charge of CLB-22’s Combat Engineer Platoon.
“My Marines were eager to accept the challenge of setting up a water site on ship and put their training and knowledge to use,” said Carr. “They have had a great attitude and constantly maintained focus, even more so when presented with a problem.”
According to Carr, seawater is drawn from the ship’s fire main and processed through the TWPS’ 12 separate filters. The filtering process kills bacteria and separates solid particles, ultimately resulting in clean, pure water that is ready to drink.
The clean water is temporarily held in a 3,000 gallon collapsible water tank where it is tested to ensure it is ready for use. From there, it is pumped into the ship’s potable water storage tanks or to the potable water storage tanks on the Landing Craft Utility vessels housed in the ship’s well deck.
Two Marines from the unit are responsible for operating and maintaining the TWPS, said Carr. As the first CLB to deploy with the new system, Carr’s Marines were quickly learning the ins and outs of the system and pulling long hours to make sure they could meet their water production goals.
“They were eager to test the capabilities of the equipment and see how they could make things work on the ship,” said Carr. “The Navy has been very grateful for their help.”
The TWPS is capable of producing water from any number of sources and seawater is no exception. With a production rate of 1,500 gallons per hour under optimal operating conditions, the TWPS is expected to produce sufficient amounts of water to supplement the ship’s water production until the part for the evaporator is replaced.
“The bottom line is that this is a win-win situation for the Marines and the Navy,” said Maj. Ginger Beals, the operations officer for CLB-22. “It gives our engineers a chance to exercise their sills and operate a piece of equipment that we haven't used since we were at Fort Pickett in April 2007.”
CLB-22 is the Logistics Combat Element for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). Along with CLB-22, the 22nd MEU (SOC) consists of its Aviation Combat Element, Marine Medium Helicopter Squardon 261; Ground Combat Element, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment; and the Command Element.