Municipal officials in Tucson, Arizona, have struck a federal grant deal to receive $86.7 million towards building a treatment plant able to purify wastewater, as long as the city can reduce its reliance on water from the strained Colorado River.
The plant, set for completion in 2031, would see utility Tucson Water take a portion of what is now being discharged into the Colorado River and purify it to supplement the drinking water system with about 2.5 million gallons per day.
The grant from the Bureau of Reclamation hinges on the city reducing its water use from the Colorado River to achieve a reduction of 56,000 acre-feet of water by 2035.
Like California, Arizona has been quick to develop a legislative framework for wastewater reuse. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) issued the draft rules last year, but they have yet to be finalized.
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The new plant’s origin is rooted in Tucson’s One Water 2100 plan, an approach that “treats all water resources as equally important, including surface water, groundwater, recycled water, and rain and stormwater harvesting.”
As a state, Arizona has a long history of putting treated wastewater to beneficial use, particularly for agriculture. Scottsdale was the first to build a pilot program for advanced water purification at its advanced water treatment facility. Phoenix is working on rehabilitating the Cave Creek Water Reclamation plant, which will treat 8 million gallons of wastewater per day. Phoenix officials also want to build a regional advanced water purification facility at its 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Purified wastewater, however, won’t be able to be delivered to water customers in the state until the draft reuse rules from the ADEQ are adopted.
Arizona has moved away from the terminology of “direct potable reuse”, or DPR, to “advanced water purification”, which aims to highlight a combination of technologies that safely, efficiently, and thoroughly purify recycled water for drinking.
