The town of Queen Creek has agreed to connect its wastewater system with an East Valley utility that may get a new owner after years of struggle.
The Queen Creek Town Council voted unanimously Oct. 7 to approve a motion with three items: the material terms for a wastewater system interconnection agreement between the town and Johnson Utilities LLC through its interim manager, EPCOR Water Arizona Inc., for the Pecan Water Reclamation Facility; delegating authority to the town’s manager and attorney to negotiate, finalize and execute an agreement; and authorizing town staff to negotiate with EPCOR for a wastewater interconnection agreement in relation to the Section 11 Wastewater Treatment Plant.
No town funds would be used if 1 million gallons per day of wastewater that would have been processed by Johnson Utilities is diverted to flow through Queen Creek to Gilbert to be treated in a planned interconnection agreement.
Town leaders said they believed the move could spur more development in the area and be an economic development tool to bring in projects other than residential.
Mayor Gail Barney said the council had a lengthy discussion and asked a lot of questions in an executive session on the matter. Such meetings are closed to the public.
On the dais were Mayor Barney and Councilmembers Jake Hoffman, Robin Benning and Emilena Turley. Meeting by WebEx were Vice Mayor Julia Wheatley and Councilmembers Jeff Brown and Dawn Oliphant.
“I’m super excited about what this means for the town of Queen Creek. We have 8,000 town of Queen Creek residents that are customers of [Johnson Utilities], 3,000 currently of whom already rely on the overtaxed Pecan treatment plant. We’ve got houses under construction in the town of Queen Creek that can’t be completed or sold because of the issues,” Councilmember Brown said prior to the vote.
Phoenix-based EPCOR USA’s announcement Oct. 6 it will purchase Johnson Utilities is welcome news, he said.
“My thoughts are that, you know, this announced purchase of Johnson Utilities by EPCOR? Probably the biggest news story for the census-designated place or San Tan Valley, unincorporated Pinal County — however you want to refer to it for the past few years,” he said. “That’s great, a fantastic start ... that portends a lot of future good news with respect to water and wastewater and economic development and dare I say even incorporation? I’d still love to see San Tan Valley be incorporated. I don’t think they’d get there without this purchase, to be quite honest, and economic development that comes afterward.”
Ralph Pew, representing three landowner groups who own a square mile of land, thanked the council for working on the interconnection agreement.
“The knowledge that your staff has and how they see this has been very, very helpful to us. You are not in this alone,” he said prior to the vote by the council. “Thank you for your help on all of this utility business. We appreciate it.”
Servicing Pinal County
Johnson Utilities provides water and wastewater service in portions of Pinal County, including San Tan Valley.
The Arizona Corporation Commission in mid-2019 ordered EPCOR, while acting as interim manager of Johnson Utilities LLC, to commence work on 70 projects identified in a three-year capital improvement plan.
The ACC decided this summer that Johnson Utilities is to begin work on the Pecan Water Reclamation Facility phase 4 expansion and influent pump station and headworks replacement projects. The phase 4 work will cost about $18 million and expand the plant’s capacity from 3 million gallons per day to 4 million gallons per day, according to a release from the corporation commission.
The Pecan Water Reclamation Facility provides wastewater service for Queen Creek residents.
“The main focus of the current discussions about an interconnection (is) the Pecan Water Reclamation Facility ... right next to the Queen Creek Wash,” Town Attorney Scott Holcomb told the council. “Pecan plant is important to the town. It is what provides wastewater service for Ironwood Crossings, Encanterra and the Banner Hospital... The problem with the Pecan plant, or what the interconnection is meant to deal with — capacity problems at Johnson Utilities has. At the Pecan Water Reclamation Facility, it is a 3 million gallons-per-day plant — that’s the permit; it has and will continue to exceed its capacity,” he said.
There is a planned expansion, adding 1 million gallons per day, he said.
“But that has, up to date, been blocked by Johnson Utilities ownership. That expansion will take at least 18 months from the time it actually is allowed to go forward, if not longer. Key here is even if and when that expansion is completed, the Pecan plant is already overcommitted for existing development; that has been confirmed by [Arizona Department of Environmental Quality], and if you look at the numbers provided by EPCOR as the interim manager, that also confirms that it is overcommitted,” he said.
The Town of Queen Creek’s wastewater is treated at the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant, 4400 S. Greenfield Road in Gilbert, operated by Gilbert, Mesa and Queen Creek.
A map shown to the council has potential Pecan Water Reclamation Facility relief connection sites shown as red stars at Queen Creek and Meridian roads, and west of Combs and Kenworthy roads.
“(T)he stars represent areas where we’ve been working with Johnson Utilities and the development community to come up with places where interconnections can happen in-between the town utilities and Johnson Utilities to be able to take on some of the flows and release some of the pressures on the system,” Town Utilities Engineering Manager Darren Farar said to the council.
“The two red stars indicate areas where the town could actually connect very easily within 150 to 200 feet of sewer line that would need to be added to actually make a connection to the Johnson Utilities system. These two points of connection will allow the town to be able to receive up to a million gallons of wastewater a day and take that into our sewer trunk mains and run that through the town,” he said.
Additional points of interconnection shown on the map — west of Gary Road and Hash Knife Draw roads, and east of Gary and Combs roads — would help an area identified as Section 11.
“Section 11 is a little different. The interconnections between Queen Creek’s facilities and Johnson Utilities are still across the road, but Johnson Utilities/EPCOR needs to figure out how to get the effluent to those points,” Town Attorney Holcomb said. “But Queen Creek is ready for the connection. We’re really waiting for EPCOR to figure out how that they can most effectively utilize it to bring that sewage to the interconnections points.”
The interconnect agreement term for the Pecan Water Reclamation Facility would be for two years, he said.
“That two years should be enough to allow the expansion to be built, but it provides that can be extended by agreement of the parties; provides for up to 1 million gallons a day in delivered wastewater — and, it’s important — that would otherwise go to the Pecan plant,” Mr. Holcomb said. “Wastewater will be metered and sampled — that’s important for determining how much is coming in and the quality, because both of those affect treatment. It’s going to be treated at the Greenfield Wastewater Reclamation Plant, and, because of that, Johnson Utilities will be required to comply with all the requirements — both ADEQ, town requirements and those for the treatment plant.”
There will be no cost to the Town of Queen Creek for the interconnection, he said.
“The town is going to pay no construction costs. It will be at zero cost to the town or its residents because Johnson will pay for the construction and maintenance off all of the facilities necessary for the interconnection. It’s not because the town is shifting a burden to Johnson, but because the town has already constructed the sewer lines and the main lines necessary for the interconnection. The remaining construction is on Johnson’s part,” Mr. Holcomb said. “And then Johnson will pay all of the costs associated with treating the effluent and for obtaining the effluent credits through recharge or otherwise from the wastewater.”
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
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.
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