Mesa's water plan, explained
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Mesa is weighing how to replace Colorado River water it expects to lose starting next year, including with recycled wastewater.
Why it matters: Looming cuts to Arizona's river supply are putting pressure on the city to line up replacement supplies before deeper shortages hit.
Driving the news: Officials are set to evaluate the city's long-term water supply plans during Thursday's City Council study session, though a vote is not expected.
Catch up quick: About half of the city's water comes from the river, but Mesa's share of the cuts is still unclear as the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — work out how to divide the reductions.
- The city doesn't expect an immediate supply crisis, but local officials say alternative supplies will become increasingly important after 2030.
The big picture: Nearly all of Mesa's treated wastewater is reused today, and the city is now participating in regional planning on a project that could eventually turn wastewater into drinking water.
State of play: Mesa is helping fund a Phoenix-led regional study of a planned advanced water purification facility at the Phoenix 91st Avenue wastewater treatment plant. The facility would further treat wastewater so it can be used as drinking water.
- The study will determine how that water would be treated, what infrastructure would be needed and how participating utilities could receive their share.
Yes, but: Piping purified water all the way from the Phoenix facility would be expensive and complicated, Joe Giudice, Mesa's water resource director, tells Axios.
- The advanced purification project is still years away and Mesa hasn't "worked out all the details" just yet, says Giudice.
- Instead, the city is in preliminary talks with its 91st Avenue project partners — Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, EPCOR utilities and others — over a proposed water exchange in which Phoenix uses the highly purified water and Mesa receives Salt and Verde River supplies, Giudice tells Axios.
Between the lines: In Scottsdale, critics dubbed this purification technology "toilet to tap."
- But "advanced purified water is the cleanest water that we can produce today," said Max Wilson, Phoenix's water resources management advisor.
Zoom out: The city isn't banking on a single replacement for Colorado River water.
- The long-term strategy is a mix of Salt and Verde River supplies, groundwater conservation, stored reserves, wastewater reuse and innovative projects like advanced water purification and even desalination, says Giudice.
The bottom line: Giudice says residents have a role, too: using the water they have wisely.
- "We live in a desert, so adapt a desert lifestyle," he says.