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 Tucson Water's Demonstration Project For CAP Will Cost Nearly $6,000 Per Household. By Dave Devine TUCSON WATER'S plan to demonstrate that a blend of CAP water and groundwater is safe and appealing will cost more than more than a million dollars to deliver water for two months to less than 100 households--or more than $10,000 per home. Beginning in June, the utility will conduct a four-part demonstration project, with each test period lasting two months. The purpose: to show that a CAP cocktail of 30 percent "recharged" canal water mixed with 70 percent groundwater is acceptable to customers and tastes even better than what Mother Nature provides. Along with 20 or so households from a specific area in each test, some select individuals will also be included. Among them will be City Council members Janet Marcus and Fred Ronstadt and several high-ranking Tucson Water administrators.
Tucson Water director David Modeer says the project will show the utility is capable of successfully delivering CAP water to its customers. It failed miserably at that task several years ago, but Modeer is certain things have changed. "If this project fails, I'll be shocked," Modeer says confidently. "We've gone overboard to ensure its success. The last thing we want to do is to have problems develop. We won't have problems. We've blown it if it fails." With a hand-picked group of participants paying next to nothing, it'll certainly be surprising if there are any reported problems. RICH WIERSMA, OF the Citizens Alliance for Water Security, isn't impressed by the test program.
"Once again, Tucson Water is trying to force CAP down our
throats," Wiersma says. Tucson Water's small test project clearly violates the spirit of the voter-approved Water Consumer Protection Act. But it may be legally acceptable since the CAP water will come from the city's so-called Avra Valley recharge project (See "Knee Deep in Muddy Water," July 2, 1998). Local water officials will be able to carefully control the quality of product being delivered during the test period. But what will happen when the $75 million Avra Valley project is greatly expanded in January 2001?
Modeer emphasizes the widespread reintroduction of CAP water into homes and businesses will be done very slowly. But how will the switch to partial CAP use be accomplished? Modeer would like to see the "recharged" canal water used throughout the city as part of the normal water supply. The other option is to pick a portion of town in which to serve the CAP cocktail. In 1992, this approach produced disastrous results--bursting pipes, rusty water and a product which tasted horrible compared to groundwater. The insertion of CAP water into the city's existing groundwater supply system would probably mean combining waters that have been disinfected in different ways. Tucson Water was warned years ago that this was a potentially unreliable concept. But now Modeer says this approach is being used all over southern California. "It may not be the problem people thought it was in the 1980s," he says. At that time, local leaders were also repeatedly told CAP use would increase the cost of maintaining household appliances. Water heaters, swamp coolers and other water-based appliances wouldn't last as long because canal water has a higher mineral content. These hidden CAP costs were taken for granted by Tucson Water's administration, since it was considered part of the price of rapid population growth. Modeer now believes that even these community-wide impacts might not be felt in Tucson because the utility will blend the CAP water with groundwater and additional chemicals. WHICH RAISES THE still-unanswered question: How many chemicals will have to be added to the CAP brew at the city's west Ajo Highway treatment plant? It will definitely have to be disinfected, and it's distinctly possible that something will be put in the water to control its pH level. Additionally, the City Council years ago voted to include fluoride in the mix. In addition, an anti-corrosive agent will be used to prevent pipes from bursting like they did when CAP was first used in the early '90s. Many of those problems were caused by the much higher level, around 700 parts per million, of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in CAP. Most of Tucson's groundwater has a level of approximately 300 TDS. Controlling TDS is a major issue facing Tucson Water. In the pilot test project, they'll be able to do it by physically mixing two water supplies. But with the Avra Valley project, officials must rely on assumptions, computer models and existing groundwater. Last May, Bruce Johnson, then Tucson Water's lead administrator, addressed the issue of CAP water being poured into, and later pumped out of, recharge basins in Avra Valley: "There has been some very preliminary modeling done by the consultants...that indicate that transition from water quality from Avra Valley (standards) to reflect more of CAP water quality will take place over perhaps 6 to 18 months or beyond," he said. "It could be 18 months to two years that water quality will move from 220 (TDS) to 640 or 650. We'll always be bringing some groundwater into the system." But Tucson Water officials have pledged to the community that they will not provide water above a 450 TDS level, in order to meet the water quality standards a small sample of Tucsonans selected. So if Johnson's assessment was correct, the Avra Valley project would be able to meet those standards only for a few months. Modeer said last week that Johnson was wrong--his statements were not based on testing or computer modeling. Modeer says he's confident in Tucson Water's latest test results, which show the Avra Valley project can provide water with acceptable levels of TDS for the next 10 to 12 years. Only then, Modeer estimates, will additional groundwater have to be introduced to lower TDS levels. What happens if, after spending almost $75 million to develop the Avra Valley project, the current computer modeling and tests are wrong? What if Johnson was correct in his original assessment of the situation? What if the CAP water coming from the project exceeds established TDS goals? Given Tucson Water's track record, it's a likely scenario. The troubled department has a history of ignored warnings and botched predictions. Modeer says if they're wrong, the utility will have to go to the community and explain the situation. But by then, years from now, millions will have been spent on another failed attempt to deliver CAP water to homes. The voters of Tucson have already spoken twice--very loudly--about this issue. In 1995, they passed the Water Consumer Protection Act, which prohibited the direct delivery of CAP water for drinking purposes. In 1997, they overwhelmingly rejected the idea of scrapping the law and replacing it with options like water blending. Blending, however, is precisely what Tucson Water is now doing. It's pouring and pumping CAP water in Avra Valley, considering it recharged for legal purposes, and then processing it for delivery--almost exactly as it planned to do for the past two decades.
Three strikes and you're out. Maybe the voters of Tucson will
need a third ballot measure to again send their very simple message
about CAP water--namely, that they don't want to drink the damn
stuff.
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The total cost of this eight-month project will exceed $1.4 million,
but 25 percent of those costs are for equipment which can be reused.
So the remainder, all $1 million-plus, will be spent to provide
water to a maximum of 100 households. They'll each pay $2 for
the privilege of participating.
By then, almost 20 percent of Tucson's water supply will begin
flowing from the project. Over a two-year period, that figure
will increase to more than 50 percent.
