Some are worrying City Manager Greg Caton is flushing away Scottsdale\u2019s vaunted \u201crecycled water\u201d program.<\/p>\n
While the portion in place for years that sends treated wastewater to golf course greens appears secure, the next step \u2013 dubbed \u201ctoilets to taps\u201d \u2013 appears to be at risk.<\/p>\n
At the Budget Review Commission\u2019s first meeting of the year, commissioner Carla expressed shock that the system to recycle wastewater was not in Caton\u2019s Capital Improvement Plan budget.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Solange Whitehead also expressed alarm that ongoing projects \u201cBartlett Dam Modification Feasibility Study\u201d and \u201cAdvanced Purified Recycled Water\u201d were not in the CIP.<\/p>\n
Caton returned to the BRC March 9.<\/p>\n
Those two projects again were missing.<\/p>\n
As Daniel Schweiker, one of four original commissioners assigned early last year put it, \u201cI would just hate for residents or councils in the future to look back and say, \u2018Well, we didn’t do anything because the Budget Review Commission didn’t think it was important enough to ask for in the CIP budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caton responded that he doesn\u2019t have accurate figures, with an ongoing study on what is needed to continue the project to new state standards.<\/p>\n
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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 and so that gives me pause of introducing any number that’s essentially going to be wrong,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Then, he took a brief trip into recent history:<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the significance, I continue to look back at the records and the policy decision of implementing AWP \u2013 it has not been approved by this governing body or any previous governing body.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After Biesemeyer outlined the plan for putting recycled water in Scottsdale homes, \u201che was given direction by council to proceed with that,” Carla summarized.<\/p>\n
Indeed, City Council approved \u201cScottsdale Water Strategic Plan 2025 \u2013 2030.”<\/p>\n
But Caton called that\u00a0 \u201ca master plan \u2026 they\u2019re inspirational, they\u2019re aspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the meeting Carla brought up, Caton said, \u2018I remember \u2026 (a) councilman said, \u2018Is this our approval of that project?\u2019 and the answer was, \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He dubbed the previous work \u201ca high-level strategic plan (that) presented some strategies \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAdvanced water purification has not been approved by a governing body to move forward,\u201d Caton reiterated.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 and worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaton is undermining years of visionary planning and investments in our water security,\u201d Linda Milhaven, a councilwoman from 2011 to 2023, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cScottsdale has long planned for drought becoming a leader in water recycling. Now, as we face significant reductions in our share of the\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCity Council approved the Water Strategic Plan and prior Capital Improvement Plans that included these investments,\u201d Milhaven said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe names of the programs may have changed but the intention was always to make greater use of recycled water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitehead, who has been on City Council since 2018, concurred with Milhaven, saying recycled water-to-taps was \u201cincluded as part of council-approved CIP budgets and strategic plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitehead said she hopes the current City Council \u201ccan unite to invest in a more secure and independent water future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing polls showing resident support, Whitehead concluded,\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0“The need for Advanced Purified Recycled water is critical to maintaining Scottsdale’s drinking water supply for our customers.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of her colleagues vehemently disagrees.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201cI\u2019m going to do everything in my power possible,\u201d Councilman Adam Kwasman recently told the Progress, \u201cto ensure that our drinking water is not reclaimed toilet water.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some are worrying City Manager Greg Caton is flushing away Scottsdale\u2019s vaunted \u201crecycled water\u201d program. While the portion…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":664363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[179695,5229,5643,1587,138900,49675,5310,119118,5644,60833,153464,200772,1588,1589,7600,46683,152497,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,281088],"class_list":["post-664362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-adam-kwasman","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-budget-review-commission","tag-carla","tag-city-council","tag-city-manager","tag-colorado-river","tag-councilwoman","tag-greg-caton","tag-linda-milhaven","tag-maricopa-county","tag-phoenix","tag-scottsdale","tag-scottsdale-city-council","tag-solange-whitehead","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-water-director"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116250111457373910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}