Queen Creek eliminates temporary septic tank program

A rarely used program from Queen Creek is being eliminated, as will the charge that goes with it.

The program is for utility customers using temporary septic tanks instead of connecting to the town’s sewer infrastructure.

Only 64 customer accounts belong to the program, paying a monthly charge of $40 each, according to a staff report.

At its Nov. 4 meeting, the Queen Creek Town Council voted 6-0 to eliminate the program and the charge. Council Member Travis Padilla was absent from the meeting.

Town staff came across the program as it continues to structure new and existing water rates, particularly a new water resource fee that will be used to pay for the almost 2-million-acre feet of Harquahala basin water Queen Creek purchased in 2025 and this year.

Council will be voting on the new water resource fee and other water and wastewater rates at its Nov. 18 meeting.

“We ran across a legacy program, if you will, where … a long time ago there was a particular wastewater main that was installed in a certain part of the town, and the concept there was that at some point the homes that were adjacent to that sewer main would ultimately hook in and come off of septic or not be put on septic if they were vacant lots,” Deputy Town Manager and Chief Financial Officer Scott McCarty told the council.

The 64 temporary septic tank program accounts are located mainly in the Queen Creek Ranchettes and Terra Ranch subdivisions.

The program was created through negotiations between the town and customers in those areas where Maricopa County required sewer lines to be constructed due to lot size, the report continued.

The fee has been in place since about 2008-09. Eliminating the fee will cost the town about $31,000 in annual revenue, McCarty said.

The monthly fee for the 64 accounts will be eliminated effective Jan. 27, which is when the proposed new water resource fee will also go into effect if approved by the council.

If passed, the new water resource fee would start at $3.07 per 1,000 gallons of water, based on metered use. Increases to the fee would be phased in incrementally over the next six years and the council would have to approve each increase.

The proposal also includes a credit based on the water the town receives back through the wastewater system to offset groundwater pumping. The proposed credits would be given to residents with a combined water and wastewater town utility account.

Under the proposal, a residential customer with a combined account who uses 10,000 gallons of water a month would have a new water resource fee of $30.71, minus the effluent credit for a total of $18.42 in the first year. Combined with a monthly $39.44 water delivery fee, the total monthly bill would be $57.73.

Customers who use 10,000 gallons a month but only have a water account with the town utility would not get the effluent credit. For them, the total monthly bill with the water delivery fee, the new water resource fee of $30.71 in year one, and no credit would be $70.15 a month.

Of the town’s 42,500 water utility accounts, 78% will be paying an additional $40 or less per month with the new fee. About 18,500 accounts will see increases of no more than $20 per month, according to town documents.

Last month, the council initiated work on an intergovernmental agreement that would transfer the irrigation accounts of about 500 customers to the Queen Creek Irrigation District.

For those customers, the proposed new water resource fee would apply only to potable water delivery and not irrigation.

The new water resource fee will go toward paying for the 1.7 million acre-feet of Harquahala basin water that the town purchased in 2025 for a total of $285 million. An acre-foot is enough water to cover 1 acre in 1 foot of water, or about 326,000 gallons.

The fee will also pay for the millions of dollars needed to get the water out of the Harquahala basin and move it to the Central Arizona Project canal that will deliver the water.

The proposed new water resource fee will replace the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District assessment on customer property tax bills, including the amount the town has been offsetting on behalf of customers since 2018.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.