Two Cities Consider Land Deals to Obtain Water

Prescott says OK; Flagstaff backs out of its deal

Prescott and Prescott Valley officials have announced plans to buy the JWK Ranch in Big Chino Valley to assure the two cities’ future water supplies. Some say the deal has a significance to the area comparable to CAP’s importance to Central Arizona, with both projects providing critical water supplies.
An intergovernmental agreement is being drawn up to buy the 4,500-acre JWK Ranch north of Prescott for $23 million. The governing councils of both municipalities are expected to approve the deal before the end of the year.

Owning the JWK ranch will enable the cities to pump from the Big Chino aquifer that extends beneath the ranch. The two rapidly growing municipalities anticipate they will get about 9,000 acre-feet of water annually, with water expected to begin flowing within three to four years.

Per the agreement, Prescott will own the project and receive 54 percent of the water, with Prescott Valley getting 46 percent. Nearby Chino Valley may also benefit; the agreement may allow it to hook up to the water line at an undetermined date in the future.

The deal has attracted criticism since the aquifer is thought to significantly contribute to the headwaters of the Verde River. There is an ongoing controversy, with the Prescott area on one side and the Salt River Project and towns in the Verde Valley on the other, about the water rights of downriver users.

The Center for Biological Diversity has already fired a volley. The center says the purchase of the ranch and use of its waters will deplete water in the Verde River and pose a threat to a variety of endangered animals. The center has formally put federal and local officials on notice it will sue unless a plan is worked out to offset the harm it says will result to the endangered animals.

Meanwhile the Flagstaff City Council voted unanimously to back out of a $15-million deal to purchase the Red Gap Ranch as a water supply source for the city. The city would have obtained 8,500 acres of land directly and received State Land Department leases on about 12,000 acres.

To justify backing out of the deal the motion cited “numerous in-holdings and the present uncertainties regarding the economic feasibility of purchasing Red Gap Ranch.” City water officials had previously raised doubts that the land would in fact provide the 10,000-20,000 acre-feet of water each year the owner, Phoenix developer David Leyvas, claimed was available.

Flagstaff now uses about 9,000 acre feet of water annually, with that amount expected to double within 15 years. The $15 million would only have paid for the land; another $111 million would be needed to build the necessary infrastructure to transport the water to water users.

Further fueling criticism about the deal was information that Leyvas purchased the property for $500,000 two years ago. He spent some additional money to install wells and pay for hydrologic studies.

Survey: Development in Rural Areas Should be Linked to Water Supply

Six of ten Arizonans favor laws to prohibit development in rural areas if a developer is unable to prove that a water supply is available to support the project according to a recent survey. The survey found that support was consistent even if such laws served to restrain growth in those rural areas.

The survey expressed the views of a diverse group, with respondents identified with regards to political affiliation and region of residency. Support for such a law was widespread transcending political preferences and even including residents of rural areas of the state. (See table below.)

The above responses likely reflect citizens’ concern that a water supply shortage threatens the state, especially in rural areas. The survey measured this concern. It found that 51 percent of respondents say the state as a whole is currently facing shortages, with 11 percent believing the state has plenty of water for future growth. When asked about rural areas of the state, 42 percent say these areas were already experiencing shortages, with 10 percent saying such areas had plenty of water.

Interestingly — and perhaps not unexpectedly — respondents were less likely to believe areas in which they lived were confronting water shortages sufficiently severe to limit growth.

Drought perception was also measured. The survey found that 63 percent considered that major Arizona cities are in serious drought and five percent believed they were not in serious drought; 50 percent said small Arizona cities were in serious drought, with seven percent believing such areas not affected by severe drought. With regards to rural communities, 56 percent said they believed these areas are experiencing the effects of serious drought, with five percent saying they were not affected by such drought condition.
The survey was conducted by the Behavior Research Center of Arizona as part of its Rocky Mountain Poll series. The center interviewed 705 adult residents across Arizona between Oct. 5 - 14. The complete survey is available at http://www.brcpolls.com

The survey has relevance to a recently released Arizona Policy Forum report recommending that developers not be allowed to build in rural areas where a long-term water supply can’t be proved and that local governments be given the authority to reject projects. Without those measures, the group warns, the demand for water will produce new conflicts, strain fragile economies and ultimately spawn long-term water shortages.

Wasterwater’s Energy Potential Tapped

A new technology has the potential to further increase the efficiency of a wastewater treatment plant beyond its ability to treat wastewater to drinking water standards. Called a microbial fuel cell, the new device can not only be used to treat wastewater, but can also provide a clean source of energy.

Similar in design to a hydrogen fuel cell, the microbial fuel cell captures electrons naturally released by bacteria as they digest organic matter. It then converts the electrons into electrical current.

Researcher Bruce Logan, an environmental engineer at Pennsylvania State University, says “In our system, the two electrodes are separated by a proton exchange membrane, just like in a conventional hydrogen fuel cell. ... It opens the door to using existing hydrogen-gas based stack technologies with bacteria in water.”

Wastewater flows on one side of the cell and air flows on the other, continuously generating electricity while also removing organic matter from the water.

The technology is developing rapidly, with the cell’s generating capacity increasing. Logan and his colleagues have boosted the cell’s fuel capacity to 350 watts per square meter. “Two years ago we had 0.1 . . . and now we’re in the 100’s,” he says. “We’d like to get in the range of 500-1000. We’re looking for another order of magnitude increase.”

Wastewater treatment plants are the most obvious site for the technology, with the cells enabling the plants to be energy self-sufficient as they treat water. The technology would be particularly useful in developing countries. With their smaller treatment facilities, such countries would end up with a surplus of energy for other uses. Logan says, “Even it’s only powering a cell phone tower, that would be a reason enough to keep it going.”

In a related study, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto is researching the amount of “biogas” produced at wastewater treatment plants. Biogas is methane-rich fuel derived from decomposing organic waste. David Bagley has calculated that the energy potential in wastewater is almost ten times the cost to treat it.

“If we could achieve just one-twentieth of that power, we could break even,” Bagley says. “We’re confident we’re going to be able to do more than that.”

A similar technology is being developed by NASA scientists who see an application in manned space missions, to convert astronauts’ waste into extra power.

Napolitano Proposes Virtual Water University

Gov. Janet Napolitano’s recent proposal to create a “virtual water university” is a strategy to more fully utilize the expertise of faculty at the state’s three universities — University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. Her plan is to establish the virtual university as a focal point uniting the new and innovative water management work now underway at each university. The campus-less, collaborative institution is expected to become a “super-center of research, community assistance and economic development.”

Napolitano announced her proposal at the recent Arizona Town Hall at the Grand Canyon, saying the center will be the first of its kind in the world. The Governor views it as an interdisciplinary clearing house that will benefit from experts in various fields including engineering, law, geography, geology, biology and history.

The Arizona university system has a rather large pool of water researchers to staff the virtual institution, with over 450 at the three state universities according to Gary Woodard of UA’s center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas. He says over two-thirds of them are at the UA.

Napolitano envisions the center as having a broad influence, its groundbreaking research and long-range planning better enabling the state to secure its water future and also demonstrating to other parts of the world the way a fast-growing region can survive drought in the desert.

The governor expects that funding for the virtual water university would come from private and government sources.

The final report from the recent Arizona Town Hall supported the virtual water university concept adding that the collaborative effort should also include community colleges and other educational institutions.

Officials from each of the universities are presently conferring with the Governor’s staff about the proposed center.

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