County's AZ Pure Brew Challenge Wins Project Of The Year

The Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department has won Project of the Year at the AZ Water Conference for its winning entry in the Water Innovation Challenge.

The AZ Water Conference is the annual awards event of the AZ Water Association, a nonprofit organization with 2,100 water and wastewater professional members who share the goal of preserving and enhancing Arizona's water environment.

The Pima County-led team’s winning project, AZ Pure Water Brew Challenge, sought to educate the public on the use of reclaimed water as a sustainable water source by using ultra-pure reclaimed water to brew beer. For the project, the team built a mobile potable reuse treatment facility that traveled across the state where it provided high-quality treated reclaimed water for local breweries to use in their brewing processes.

Beers from more than two dozen Arizona brewers from Tucson, Yuma, Prescott, Flagstaff, Sedona, and the Phoenix area participated the AZ Pure Water Brew Challenge and had their entries judged at a statewide competition.

“I believe the best part of this entire effort was the collaboration and innovative thinking that it fostered,” said Jeff Prevatt, Deputy Director of Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation. “Being able to interact with citizens throughout the state and discuss Arizona’s future was a remarkable experience.”

The project team treated more than 80,000 gallons of recycled community wastewater to use for the AZ Pure Water Brew Challenge. The water underwent a five-step purification process that removed all contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, viruses, bacteria, and organic compounds, leaving only pure water that satisfied federal and state safe drinking water standards.

The project showed the public how reclaimed water can be safe and sustainable and furthered the conversation about water quality, water availability, and water sustainability.

The County’s winning project was developed by a team at Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation’s Southwest Water Campus. Additional partners included Tucson Water, Town of Marana, University of Arizona, Carollo Engineers, CH2M, Clean Water Services and Water Reuse.

The team also recruited contributors to assist with the technical aspects involving the design, assembly, operation, and performance validation of the mobile advanced water treatment facility. Among the contributors were Dow Chemical, Agilent, and HACH. In addition, the team called on the support from the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, AZ Water, WateReuse Arizona, ADEQ, the UA’s Cooperative Extension, and Pima County Communications to assist with the marketing, public outreach and regulatory aspects of potable reuse.

For more information about the County’s efforts click here.