$2.7M admin agreement approved for Apache Junction Water District

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

The Apache Junction Water District will pay a company $2.7 million for construction administration and inspection services for the expansion of the district’s water treatment plant to 10 million gallons per day.

The Apache Junction Water District board, comprised of Apache Junction City Council members, voted unanimously on Oct. 21 to approve a $2,735,475 professional service agreement between the water utilities community facilities district and Wilson Engineers LLC for Phase 3 final build out of Superstition Area Water Plant construction administration and inspection services.

The district needs a consultant to do the construction administration and inspection services as it expands its water treatment plant to 10 million gallons per day. That expansion will cost an estimated $60 million, Water District Director Mike Loggins said prior to the vote.

“As you are aware, we have a large development going on to the south. We completed our first phase of our expansion of our surface water treatment plant recently. It’s going from 2 million gallons per day to 4 million gallons a day. This next step is going from that four million gallons a day to 10 million gallons a day — our ultimate buildout of this site,” he said.

“This will be a pass-through cost for us that the developer is paying because he’s paying for the production of that plant to upsize it, to do the expansion for us. So we’re recommending using Wilson Engineers under the Scottsdale engineering service contract — it’s a cooperative agreement,” Loggins said.

Water district

The Apache Junction water district supplies well water (groundwater) pumped from the Eastern Salt River Sub-Basin Aquifer, which flows southwesterly under Apache Junction and its surrounding areas. The groundwater is treated for arsenic removal where necessary, disinfected with chlorine, pumped into storage tanks and blended with Colorado River (surface) water.

The surface water is transported through the Central Arizona Project canal system and filtered and purified at the Superstition Area Water Plant before being introduced into the distribution system.

The water district can also receive treated CAP water from the city of Mesa through an interconnect for a backup supply of water, if needed.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines, https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist/.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.