Improving Arizona’s water infrastructure to combat drought

Almost all of Arizona is currently under a drought condition. Some cities are asking residents to conserve water. Arizona’s water infrastructure encompasses all the systems that move, store, treat and dispose of water within a city.

This includes everything from drinking water supply systems and wastewater management to stormwater drainage and flood control. Essentially, it’s the network of pipes, dams, treatment plants and other facilities that ensure clean water for consumption and disposal of wastewater.

Shawn Bradford, Senior Vice President Regulated U.S. Water at EPCOR, joined “Arizona Horizon” to take a closer look at what constitutes infrastructure, ways to improve or repair infrastructure and also how improving infrastructure makes it easier for businesses and residents to conserve water or make it less likely that we’ll use more water than we need.

“So if you think about the Arizona economy and all we’ve done to bring in say, aerospace advanced manufacturing, that relies on water. So you need to move that water from its source to where these customers are based. So, for me it’s drinking water wells, water storage facilities, certainly pipelines. There’s tens of thousands of miles of pipelines that run across metro Phoenix to deliver that water to these customers,” Bradford said.

When it comes to improving on and creating more water infrastructure, Bradford acknowledges the best way to go about it is a regional approach where everyone is paying their fair share.

“If it’s going to serve new growth, you want to make sure that new customer coming in pays their fair share. Some of that cost should be shared by existing customers that benefit from this new infrastructure, or this better technology, or better improved piece of equipment. But it needs to be equitably distributed,” Bradford said.