 |
2007 Ground Water Summit |
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 : 8:40 a.m.
Overview of Underground Recharge Facilities in Arizona
In 1986, the Arizona Legislature established the Underground Water Storage and Recovery Program which is administered by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). This program was designed to promote the underground storage and use of the State’s renewable water supplies, such as effluent, surface water, and Colorado River-Central Arizona Project (CAP) water, instead of non-renewable groundwater. In 1994, the Legislature enacted the Underground Water Storage, Savings, and Replenishment Act (UWS), which further expanded and defined ADWR’s Recharge Program. There are two types of recharge facilities or Underground Storage Facilities (USF’s) permitted by ADWR; managed and constructed. A managed facility is designed to utilize the natural channel of a stream to store water through the controlled release and subsequent infiltration of effluent or other renewable water supplies that are not part of the natural flow of the stream or river. A constructed facility is designed and constructed to store water underground by a variety of methods such as direct injection wells, ASR wells, vadose zone wells, trenches and/or basins. Both types of facilities can be permitted to recharge treated effluent, surface water and/or CAP water. Currently, there are six managed recharge facilities and 53 constructed recharge facilities permitted by ADWR across the State. The annual permitted recharge volumes for these USFs range from 150 acre-feet per annum (AFA) up to 200,000 AFA. Since the inception of the Recharge Program, ADWR has encountered unique and challenging technical issues associated with permitting various recharge facilities. This presentation will highlight these challenges and also present a virtual tour of Arizona’s permitted USFs, showcasing the array of methodologies used at these facilities as well as their common and/or unique issues and achievements.