Some are worrying City Manager Greg Caton is flushing away Scottsdale’s vaunted “recycled water” program.

While the portion in place for years that sends treated wastewater to golf course greens appears secure, the next step – dubbed “toilets to taps” – appears to be at risk.

At the Budget Review Commission’s first meeting of the year, commissioner Carla expressed shock that the system to recycle wastewater was not in Caton’s Capital Improvement Plan budget.

Councilwoman Solange Whitehead also expressed alarm that ongoing projects “Bartlett Dam Modification Feasibility Study” and “Advanced Purified Recycled Water” were not in the CIP.

Caton returned to the BRC March 9.

Those two projects again were missing.

As Daniel Schweiker, one of four original commissioners assigned early last year put it, “I would just hate for residents or councils in the future to look back and say, ‘Well, we didn’t do anything because the Budget Review Commission didn’t think it was important enough to ask for in the CIP budget.”

Caton responded that he doesn’t have accurate figures, with an ongoing study on what is needed to continue the project to new state standards.

Regarding advanced water purification, or AWP, he said, “I don’t know the capital expenditure, and I don’t know the operating expenditure, so I can’t put it in the budget.”

“ … and so that gives me pause of introducing any number that’s essentially going to be wrong,” he added.

Then, he took a brief trip into recent history:

“Given the significance, I continue to look back at the records and the policy decision of implementing AWP – it has not been approved by this governing body or any previous governing body.”

That statement puzzled Carla, who referred to a June 25, 2024, Scottsdale City Council work study session led by then-Scottsdale Water Director Brian Biesemeyer.

After Biesemeyer outlined the plan for putting recycled water in Scottsdale homes, “he was given direction by council to proceed with that,” Carla summarized.

Indeed, City Council approved “Scottsdale Water Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030.”

But Caton called that  “a master plan … they’re inspirational, they’re aspirational.”

As for the meeting Carla brought up, Caton said, ‘I remember … (a) councilman said, ‘Is this our approval of that project?’ and the answer was, ‘No.’”

He dubbed the previous work “a high-level strategic plan (that) presented some strategies … 

“Advanced water purification has not been approved by a governing body to move forward,” Caton reiterated.

While Caton said AWP remains one of the options this City Council will be provided, in the wake of Colorado River expected cuts, some are wary – and worse.

“Caton is undermining years of visionary planning and investments in our water security,” Linda Milhaven, a councilwoman from 2011 to 2023, said.

“Scottsdale has long planned for drought becoming a leader in water recycling. Now, as we face significant reductions in our share of the  Colorado River, just when we need this additional source of water the most, he has taken investments in recycled water out of the Capital Improvement Plan claiming the policy has never been approved by City Council and that he does not have good cost estimates.  

“City Council approved the Water Strategic Plan and prior Capital Improvement Plans that included these investments,” Milhaven said.  

“The names of the programs may have changed but the intention was always to make greater use of recycled water.”

Whitehead, who has been on City Council since 2018, concurred with Milhaven, saying recycled water-to-taps was “included as part of council-approved CIP budgets and strategic plans.”

Whitehead said she hopes the current City Council “can unite to invest in a more secure and independent water future.”

Citing polls showing resident support, Whitehead concluded, 

 “The need for Advanced Purified Recycled water is critical to maintaining Scottsdale’s drinking water supply for our customers.” 

One of her colleagues vehemently disagrees.

““I’m going to do everything in my power possible,” Councilman Adam Kwasman recently told the Progress, “to ensure that our drinking water is not reclaimed toilet water.”