EPCOR shows the way to provide scarce water for Arizonans
Watering a sun-baked state EPCOR is proving a flexible and reliable provider of water services to the people of Arizona: we look at a few of the more imaginative projects currently in hand
E
PCOR is no newcomer to providing reliable utilities. It traces its heritage back to 1891
when it was established as an electrical power generator and distributor at Edmonton, Alberta – and the City of Edmonton still owns all of the company’s shares. And it was as long ago as 1913 that it built its first water treatment plant at Rossdale. In 2016, EPCOR celebrated 125 years of providing water and wastewater services to some 1.9m people across the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and the U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. 04
EPCOR’s first foray into the USA was in 2011 when it acquired Chaparral City Water Company in Fountain Hills, Arizona, followed in 2012 by the acquisition of Arizona American Water and New Mexico American Water, wholly owned subsidiaries of American Water Works Company Inc. Since then it has been building out its facilities and acquiring additional small water and natural gas businesses in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas as opportunities arise, says Engineering Director Andrew Brown. Brown joined EPCOR in 2013, bringing with him 25-plus years of water service experience from the City of Phoenix. Though arid in parts, and threatened by climate change-induced drought, Arizona
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w w w. e p c o r. c o m
has a variety of water sources, chief among them the 336-mile long Central Arizona Project (CAP), which diverts water from the Colorado River. Other sources include the Salt River Project canal system and groundwater wells tapping into underground aquifers.
POPULATION DEMANDS AND NATURE’S CHALLENGES
“ The capacity at White Tanks] was stressed so we had to expand”
Brown and his team are respon06
sible for delivering a large annual
— Andrew Brown, Engineering Director
capital improvement program, one of which is the project to expand the White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility (White Tanks), built in 2009 to treat water from the CAP and supply it to consumers. This project provides a good illustration of the challenges faced by EPCOR in the State, and the best practices it is employing to meet them. White Tanks was originally designed to treat 20mn gallons of water per day (MGD) with a firm capacity of 13.4 MGD. The total capacity will be increased
to 33 MGD as part of this project, he explains. “In recent years our peak demand in the summer has been pushing 19 MGD. The capacity was stressed so we had to expand.” A further challenge was that a number of events, including heavy rain events and storm runoff in the summer, can result in a surge of particles and mud to the CAP, which disrupts the plant’s treatment ability because of the time it takes for this turbidity to settle out. When these water quality ‘excursions’ happen, they can last for up to three weeks. Excursions don’t happen every year, but Brown and his team looked for a way to solve
White Tanks raw water basin
this problem at the same time as expanding the overall capacity of the plant. “We did something unique!” he says. “Besides taking the White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility from 20 to 33 MGD we knew we needed more enhanced treatment technology to address the excursion events and build resiliency in the treatment process.” The solution ultimately chosen was ‘ballasted flocculation’, which will provide more efficient and effective removal of particulate matter from the water. Conventional flocculation/sedimentation methods were dismissed due to both size and cost constraints. The ballasted flocculation system chosen for the White Tanks was a CoMag system from w w w. e p c o r. c o m
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Evoqua Water Technologies. This uses an inert iron ore by-product called magnetite that attracts the particles and settles them as much as 30 times faster than conventional treatments. Once it has done that, the magnetite can be recovered and reused.
PARTNERSHIP IN PROJECTS Though magnetite flocculation had been used before in the USA for wastewater, the $28.7mn 08
White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility 2019 Expansion and Process Upgrade was the first in the country to use the CoMag system on the water supply end. It’s a pioneering project for EPCOR, the design team from Water Works Engineers and the contractor Archer Western, all of
Water Station After Photo inside
“We knew we needed some more enhanced treatment technology to take care of these excursion events” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director
09
Luke 303 WRF aerial close up
whom have worked together before. The project was won by Archer
facilities – and of course the CoMag plant – are the most important areas of
Western in a competitive tender; work
work currently.” The annual shutdown
started late in 2017 and is on schedule
of the plant – typically between late
to be completed with new treatment
November and early February to
systems online by March 2019. “We are
coincide with a CAP canal mainte-
also constructing a 20mn gallon raw
nance shutdown – will provide the
water reservoir where initial settling
opportunity to complete the expansion
takes place,” explains Brown. “That’s a
and connect it to the existing system.
lot of additional capacity at that point:
At the other end of the water cycle,
then we added some drying beds for
EPCOR is building a brand new
the sludge that is removed. Electrical
wastewater facility in Phoenix’s West
improvements, more back up power
Valley, close to the Luke Air Force Base.
generators, enhanced chemical
It’s of interest because of the phased w w w. e p c o r. c o m
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“Electrical improvements, more back up power generators, enhanced chemical facilities – and of course the CoMag plant – are the most important areas of work currently” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director
way in which it is being introduced – there’s both industrial and residential development along the Route 303 corridor that circles the city. “We started by building a small pumping station for the initial flows, and at present we are pumping that wastewater into trucks and hauling it over to another of our facilities nearby for treatment.” The first phase of the 150,000
sewage plant. A bigger headache is the need to keep everything covered. Open water attracts birds: birds and low-flying aircraft represent a mutual threat!
LOCAL AND APPROPRIATE As Arizona’s cities expand, EPCOR will continue to provide localized solutions. “When you have lots of small developments and they are not contiguous then it can make sense to have localized treatment,” says Brown. This is good news for EPCOR and its partners. It happens that both the projects we have discussed so far have been delivered by the design/construction teams of gpd treatment facility has just been completed,
Water Works Engineers and
he explains, but is not being put into service
Archer Western Contractors
until flows from the mushrooming housing
(Walsh Group), however, EPCOR
development in the area are enough to make
works with many local consultants
it efficient to start up and operate – most
and contractors.
likely early in 2019. Eventually that facility could grow to its
Not everyone is blessed with a surface water supply. Many
master-planned capacity of 8 MGD, he
communities still rely exclusively
envisages. Close proximity to an airfield
on wells, but climate change is
comes with other challenges. Clearly the
drying the wells up so in some
height of any construction has to be limited,
areas around Phoenix people
however that’s not too much of a burden for a
have come to rely some or all of w w w. e p c o r. c o m
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“When you have lots of small developments and they are not contiguous then it makes sense to have localized treatment” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director
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13 the time on water brought to them by
seven days a week during daylight
trucks. Around the Anthem community
hours and has two filling points that can
in the northern portion of the Greater
feed trucks at a rate of about 425
Phoenix metropolitan area this
gallons per minute. “This is a standalone
service was indirectly provided by
part of our business,” says Brown. “We
a local municipality but was withdrawn
can’t charge our existing customers, so
in 2017. EPCOR’s response was to
we make a charge to the water haulers
build a water hauling station – to the
to cover the cost of the facility.” The
great relief of these 1,500 residents
water hauling facility illustrates some
when it opened in July 2018.
highly relevant points – among them the
The Desert Hills New River Water
alarming scarcity of water resources in
Station is a location where water
Arizona, the diversity of consumers’
haulers can purchase potable water
circumstances – and the alacrity and
that meets all Federal and State
flexibility with which EPCOR looks for
drinking water standards. It’s open
appropriate solutions. w w w. e p c o r. c o m
2355 W. Pinnacle Peak Rd., Suite 300, Phoenix, AZ 85027 www.epcor.com