Tucson To Expand Water Recycling Efforts

By Sara Jerome
@sarmje

arizona.reg

Tucson residents may start drinking recycled water in the next few years.

"Tucson Water has completed a master plan for the development of recycled water as a future drinking water resource. Additional planning and study will begin soon, including discussions with Tucson Water customers," KVOA reported.

The plan will take several years to implement, the report said. Tucson Water Director Alan Forrest explained the process.

"We've been studying this for some time," he said in the report. "The ongoing drought and dropping water levels in Lake Mead, and planning for the impacts of climate change are making it a higher priority than originally planned."

"The City of Tucson leadership has always supported Tucson Water in planning far in advance to make sure we have a safe, reliable water supply for the future," he continued.

Currently, Tucson uses recycled water "to produce reclaimed water, which is specially treated for applications such as irrigation, dust control, and industrial uses," according to the city.

The drought in the West is a factor in Tucson's search for more drinking water sources.

The city uses water supplied by the Central Arizona Project (CAP) "the largest and most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the United States. It is over 300 miles long and runs from Parker to Tucson. The CAP takes in Colorado River water which is released from Lake Mead and supplies our water in Tucson along with groundwater," Tucson News Now reported.

The federal government said in July that Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled in 1937, Bloomberg reported.

Image credit: "Montezuma Mountains, Arizona," Kevin Dooley© 2010, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

 

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