PHOENIX — Arizona’s first advanced water purification plant is about two years out from taking wastewater and making it drinkable.
The City of Phoenix celebrated being halfway through the construction at the $300 million Cave Creek Water Reclamation Plant by filling up a treatment basin with 1 million gallons of water last Thursday.
It’s part of the Pure Water Phoenix program, which will increase the Phoenix metro’s reliance on treated wastewater.
“Long term, it ensures that Phoenix residents have water security now well into the future,” Nazario Prieto, assistant water services director for the Phoenix Water Services Department, told PHXTV.
“Over time, in the next 10 years, this will be an integral part of Phoenix’s water resource portfolio,” Prieto said.
The wastewater purification plant undergoes a yearlong test
Construction began in 2024 and the facility is expected to be completed by next year.
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Then, the plant will undergo a one-year demonstration period, where it will be used to recharge groundwater basins, to ensure it meets Arizona Department of Environmental Quality standards.
“This water, once it’s treated, it’s going to run through an entire reverse osmosis process,” Prieto said.
He said the water is already highly treated before it reaches the reverse osmosis stage, having been filtered through multiple other processes.
The Cave Creek AWP plant will produce enough water to serve between 25,000 and 30,000 homes.
“This is really going to be the first large-scale plant. We’re talking receiving 8 million gallons per day of wastewater to produce 6.75 million gallons a day of potable water,” Prieto said.
The plant is expected to be fully operational by 2029, which is when direct potable reuse can begin. At that point, the treated water can go directly into the water distribution system.
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