Epcor Water - Brochure 2018

EPCOR shows the way to provide scarce water for Arizonans

Watering a sun-baked state EPCOR is proving a flexible and reliable provider of water services to the people of Arizona: we look at a few of the more imaginative projects currently in hand

E

PCOR is no newcomer to providing reliable utilities. It traces its heritage back to 1891

when it was established as an electrical power generator and distributor at Edmonton, Alberta – and the City of Edmonton still owns all of the company’s shares. And it was as long ago as 1913 that it built its first water treatment plant at Rossdale. In 2016, EPCOR celebrated 125 years of providing water and wastewater services to some 1.9m people across the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and the U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

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EPCOR’s first foray into the USA was in 2011 when it acquired Chaparral City Water Company in Fountain Hills, Arizona, followed in 2012 by the acquisition of Arizona American Water and New Mexico American Water, wholly owned subsidiaries of American Water Works Company Inc. Since then it has been building out its facilities and acquiring additional small water and natural gas businesses in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas as opportunities arise, says Engineering Director Andrew Brown. Brown joined EPCOR in 2013, bringing with him 25-plus years of water service experience from the City of Phoenix.

Though arid in parts, and threatened by climate change-induced drought, Arizona

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Click to watch: ‘#BaskontheSask’

w w w. e p c o r. c o m

has a variety of water sources, chief among them the 336-mile long Central Arizona Project (CAP), which diverts water from the Colorado River. Other sources include the Salt River Project canal system and groundwater wells tapping into underground aquifers.

POPULATION DEMANDS AND NATURE’S CHALLENGES

“ The capacity at White Tanks] was stressed so we had to expand”

Brown and his team are respon06

sible for delivering a large annual

— Andrew Brown, Engineering Director

capital improvement program, one of which is the project to expand the White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility (White Tanks), built in 2009 to treat water from the CAP and supply it to consumers. This project provides a good illustration of the challenges faced by EPCOR in the State, and the best practices it is employing to meet them. White Tanks was originally designed to treat 20mn gallons of water per day (MGD) with a firm capacity of 13.4 MGD. The total capacity will be increased

to 33 MGD as part of this project, he explains.

“In recent years our peak demand in the summer has been pushing 19 MGD. The capacity was stressed so we had to expand.”

A further challenge was that a number of events, including heavy rain events and storm runoff in the summer, can result in a surge of particles and mud to the CAP, which disrupts the plant’s treatment ability because of the time it takes for this turbidity to settle out.

When these water quality ‘excursions’ happen, they can last for up to three weeks.

Excursions don’t happen every year, but Brown and his team looked for a way to solve

White Tanks raw water basin

this problem at the same time as expanding the overall capacity of the plant. “We did something unique!” he says. “Besides taking the White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility from 20 to 33 MGD we knew we needed more enhanced treatment technology to address the excursion events and build resiliency in the treatment process.”

The solution ultimately chosen was ‘ballasted flocculation’, which will provide more efficient and effective removal of particulate matter from the water. Conventional flocculation/sedimentation methods were dismissed due to both size and cost constraints.

The ballasted flocculation system chosen for the White Tanks was a CoMag system from w w w. e p c o r. c o m

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Evoqua Water Technologies. This uses an inert iron ore by-product called magnetite that attracts the particles and settles them as much as 30 times faster than conventional treatments. Once it has done that, the magnetite can be recovered and reused.

PARTNERSHIP IN PROJECTS Though magnetite flocculation had been used before in the USA for wastewater, the $28.7mn 08

White Tanks Regional Treatment Facility 2019 Expansion and Process Upgrade was the first in the country to use the CoMag system on the water supply end.

It’s a pioneering project for EPCOR, the design team from Water Works Engineers and the contractor Archer Western, all of

Water Station After Photo inside

“We knew we needed some more enhanced treatment technology to take care of these excursion events” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director

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Luke 303 WRF aerial close up

whom have worked together before.

The project was won by Archer

facilities – and of course the CoMag plant – are the most important areas of

Western in a competitive tender; work

work currently.” The annual shutdown

started late in 2017 and is on schedule

of the plant – typically between late

to be completed with new treatment

November and early February to

systems online by March 2019. “We are

coincide with a CAP canal mainte-

also constructing a 20mn gallon raw

nance shutdown – will provide the

water reservoir where initial settling

opportunity to complete the expansion

takes place,” explains Brown. “That’s a

and connect it to the existing system.

lot of additional capacity at that point:

At the other end of the water cycle,

then we added some drying beds for

EPCOR is building a brand new

the sludge that is removed. Electrical

wastewater facility in Phoenix’s West

improvements, more back up power

Valley, close to the Luke Air Force Base.

generators, enhanced chemical

It’s of interest because of the phased w w w. e p c o r. c o m

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“Electrical improvements, more back up power generators, enhanced chemical facilities – and of course the CoMag plant – are the most important areas of work currently” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director

way in which it is being introduced – there’s both industrial and residential development along the Route 303 corridor that circles the city. “We started by building a small pumping station for the initial flows, and at present we are pumping that wastewater into trucks and hauling it over to another of our facilities nearby for treatment.”

The first phase of the 150,000

sewage plant. A bigger headache is the need to keep everything covered. Open water attracts birds: birds and low-flying aircraft represent a mutual threat!

LOCAL AND APPROPRIATE As Arizona’s cities expand, EPCOR will continue to provide localized solutions. “When you have lots of small developments and they are not contiguous then it can make sense to have localized treatment,” says Brown. This is good news for EPCOR and its partners. It happens that both the projects we have discussed so far have been delivered by the design/construction teams of gpd treatment facility has just been completed,

Water Works Engineers and

he explains, but is not being put into service

Archer Western Contractors

until flows from the mushrooming housing

(Walsh Group), however, EPCOR

development in the area are enough to make

works with many local consultants

it efficient to start up and operate – most

and contractors.

likely early in 2019.

Eventually that facility could grow to its

Not everyone is blessed with a surface water supply. Many

master-planned capacity of 8 MGD, he

communities still rely exclusively

envisages. Close proximity to an airfield

on wells, but climate change is

comes with other challenges. Clearly the

drying the wells up so in some

height of any construction has to be limited,

areas around Phoenix people

however that’s not too much of a burden for a

have come to rely some or all of w w w. e p c o r. c o m

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“When you have lots of small developments and they are not contiguous then it makes sense to have localized treatment” — Andrew Brown, Engineering Director

Full Service Water & Wastewater Contractor Felix Construction Company is a general engineering contractor and construction management company with a specific focus on water production facilities, well sites, booster pump stations, water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment plants, sewage lift stations, storm se water pump stations, electrical instrumentation & controls, and custom industrial control panels. LEARN MORE.

CONTACT David Giannetto, Principal 1326 W. Industrial Dr., Coolidge, AZ 85128 623-435-4314 davidg@felixconstruction.com

www.felixconstruction.com

13 the time on water brought to them by

seven days a week during daylight

trucks. Around the Anthem community

hours and has two filling points that can

in the northern portion of the Greater

feed trucks at a rate of about 425

Phoenix metropolitan area this

gallons per minute. “This is a standalone

service was indirectly provided by

part of our business,” says Brown. “We

a local municipality but was withdrawn

can’t charge our existing customers, so

in 2017. EPCOR’s response was to

we make a charge to the water haulers

build a water hauling station – to the

to cover the cost of the facility.” The

great relief of these 1,500 residents

water hauling facility illustrates some

when it opened in July 2018.

highly relevant points – among them the

The Desert Hills New River Water

alarming scarcity of water resources in

Station is a location where water

Arizona, the diversity of consumers’

haulers can purchase potable water

circumstances – and the alacrity and

that meets all Federal and State

flexibility with which EPCOR looks for

drinking water standards. It’s open

appropriate solutions. w w w. e p c o r. c o m

2355 W. Pinnacle Peak Rd., Suite 300, Phoenix, AZ 85027 www.epcor.com