City of Sedona commits $22M for wells – Sedona Red Rock News
The Sedona City Council, with Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella absent and Councilwoman Charlotte Hosseini attending virtually, directed staff on Dec. 10 to move forward with a $22 million plan over the next two to three years to add recharge wells and explore supplying water to the Dells.
The city will abandon 200 acres of irrigation and construct up to four additional recharge wells.
The plans include two new recharge wells now, with two additional wells planned for future capacity.
“I should note that that $22 million is just for the two wells,” Sedona Wastewater Director Roxanne Holland said. “If we need two more for capacity later, that would be an additional, probably over $22 million, because it will be far in the future. So that $22 million is not for four wells.”
Both irrigation and injection wells are methods cities use to dispose of treated wastewater from the reclamation plants.
“From an operational standpoint, my preference would be to abandon [irrigation],” Holland said. “It’s difficult to manage effluent management with irrigation that is unpredictable. Injection wells, they’re tested … and they have been very predictable for us. Every day, our recharge well will take 360,000 gallons” whereas “there are some days that irrigation will take zero.”
Council considered five total options for wastewater, with the cheapest calling for the construction of two recharge wells and keeping irrigation disposal, to the most expensive option of $161 million for the construction of an Advanced Water Purification facility that could purify recycled water back into drinking water that meets federal and local drinking water standards.
“AWP does not seem cost-effective under any circumstances, we’ve got assured water supply,” Interim Vice Mayor Brian Fultz said.
Arizona Water Company representatives reiterated their October presentation to council that AWC’s groundwater modeling shows Sedona’s groundwater meets current Adequate Water Supply Requirements and is reasonably expected to be available for at least the next 100 years.
The “predictive scenarios show: 100-year depth to water ranges from 420 to 790 feet below land surface. A 100-year drawdown of up to 200 feet,” AWC stated.
AWC’s models ran four scenarios with annual groundwater pumping ranging from 2,049 acre-feet per year to 4,361 acre-feet per year that also accounted for a decrease in water availability because of climate change.
Councilman Pete Furman was a dissenting voice, stating that, while advanced water purification is costly, he could see a possibility of a municipality downstream being interested in Sedona’s treated water. His comments come as communities across the Southwest grapple with increasing aridification — including Phoenix, which received $179 million in federal funding in August for its North Gateway Advanced Water Purification Facility.
“We got a good assured water supply for a while,” Furman said. “What I really believe is the value of our effluent is increasing every day. If we pay attention to the news … folks are trying to figure out how to get new water sources every day … but someone’s going to come knocking on our door to want to … take that effluent, get it into the Verde River, and they’ll pull it off downstream,” and compensate Sedona.
Council’s decision doesn’t preclude a future council from investigating an AWP for the city.
AWC’s existing infrastructure doesn’t go out to the Dells, and while the city currently has a well at the administration site for the wastewater treatment plant for city services, it is not sufficient for development at the Dells and additional water infrastructure is needed to support the buildout of the Dells.
The council’s decision came after environmental and geotechnical studies were conducted on the Dells land, as requested in July. These assessments included testing for 37 specific contaminants. Testubg found no contamination or environmental issues exceeding established standards. The soil was also determined to be suitable for construction, and no remediation was required, confirming the land can be developed without concern for contamination.