Almost five years ago Craig Johnson had an alarming thought. The kind that would give any city’s water services director some sleepless nights.
While serving in that role for Glendale, he got to thinking about one of the city’s three surface water treatment plants, Pyramid Peak, up north somewhat between 63rd Drive and one of the Central Arizona Project’s canals. The realization came that, should an unplanned situation arise at the plant — which it has in the past — and get serious enough, the water supply for northern Glendale could be compromised in a big way while waiting for the system to get back on line.
The light-bulb moment gave way to the reality that there is no emergency backup. Sure there are 20 million gallons of water in reserves up that way, but an unexpected shutdown that might become an extended period of time posed a real problem. He called it “a soft spot in our system.”
