City Of Phoenix Wins Groundwater Supply Award From National Ground Water Association

The City of Phoenix, Arizona, has received an Outstanding Groundwater Project Award from the National Ground Water Association for innovation and excellence in bolstering the city’s groundwater supply.

This award will be presented during the 2013 NGWA Groundwater Expo and Annual Meeting taking place in Nashville, Tennessee.

Based on the City of Phoenix’s 2010 groundwater management plan, the project was developed to install three aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells to stabilize the local aquifer levels, which had been dropping 3 feet to 4.5 feet a year. Phoenix services about 1.5 million people and although most of the city’s water supply comes from surface water sources, groundwater is critical to meet drought shortages and system outages, as well as to provide reliability to the supply system.

Using the three large ASR wells, excess potable water is pumped into the aquifer (recharge) during periods of low water demand (winter months) and pumped back out as needed during periods of high water demand (summer months). The city now has a total aquifer recharge capacity of 4.5 million gallons a day.

It is estimated that theses ASR wells will:

• Reduce the city’s water well rehabilitation costs by $110,000 to $115,000 a year
• Reduce well rehabilitation work time from 30 to 40 days a year to 3 to 4 days a year.

Working closely with the city were Carollo Engineers, Clear Creek Associates, Weber Water Resources LLC, and ASR Systems.

NGWA, a nonprofit organization composed of U.S. and international groundwater professionals — contractors, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, and engineers — is dedicated to advancing groundwater knowledge. NGWA’s vision is to be the leading groundwater association that advocates the responsible development, management, and use of water.