Long-awaited San Tan Valley wastewater plant ends troubled utility saga, unlocks growth

A long-awaited wastewater plant is up and running in San Tan Valley, bringing an end to a yearslong saga of utility woes and paving the way for even more development in the rapidly-growing area.

The Copper Basin Water Reclamation Plant marks a new page for the community, which was long served by troubled private water company Johnson Utilities. As the area ballooned in population, residents saw overflowing sewers, water shortages and noxious fumes from the Section 11 Water Reclamation Facility off Hunt Highway.

State utility regulators ultimately appointed Epcor, another private water company, to take over Johnson Utilities. The company later purchased it, promising to fix a myriad of water and wastewater problems that plagued San Tan Valley residents and led to building limits in some parts of the region.

Since then, the unincorporated community has garnered a reputation as an affordable suburb with brand-new development within commuting distance of metro Phoenix. It has continued to grow as developers construct a limited number of homes allowed by Epcor's regional wastewater capabilities, putting itself on the map as the largest community in Pinal County.

The new wastewater facility is widely expected to unlock even more development in the region.

"The growth projections that I'm seeing out here — I don't even believe them," said Jacob Rogers, who oversees operations in Epcor's San Tan District and lives in the community.

But the potential boom comes as the community faces questions about its future. The area's roads and amenities have struggled to keep up with its growth, and its residents have long debated whether the area should become Pinal County's newest city.

The most recent attempt to incorporate the community is expected to appear on voters' ballots in 2025. Previous incorporation efforts have crashed and burned before even getting a vote, but state law has since changed to remove some barriers preventing the question from making it to voters.

Meanwhile, the community has never been bigger — or faced more traffic.

Ultimately, the incorporation attempt won't impact Epcor's new wastewater plant. The area is part of the company's service territory, something that won't change regardless of what path residents choose.

But it adds to a backdrop of transformation in San Tan Valley, which is rapidly shifting from sparsely populated desert to sprawling suburbia.

"We're looking at a lot of growth in that region," said Pinal County Supervisor Jeff McClure, who represents the area encompassing the new wastewater plant. "It's crazy numbers. We hear these numbers like, it's going to double, it's going to triple. If interest rates drop, I think we're just going to explode."

What was the problem with Johnson Utilities?

Suburban homes began dotting the undeveloped desert and farmland of San Tan Valley in the 2000s. Problems with the area's water and wastewater infrastructure quickly emerged as new residents moved in.

The owners of Johnson Utilities, the company serving the booming community, had long directed most of the proceeds from the utility to themselves and their other companies rather than reinvesting in infrastructure.

That eventually caught up with the utility. It had problems keeping raw sewage in its pipes. It couldn't control the odor at its wastewater facility. It struggled to deliver sufficient clean water to customers.

The problems led to more than 75 sewage overflows from 2010 through April 2018, countless customer complaints about water pressure and delayed construction on thousands of new homes and businesses because the utility didn't have the capacity to serve them.

After years of inaction, regulators eventually stepped in. The Arizona Corporation Commission forced company owner George Johnson to hand over management of his utility to Epcor in 2018.

It was the first time the Arizona Corporation Commission had ordered such a takeover of an operation the size of Johnson Utilities, which at the time had about 35,000 customers in parts of Florence, Queen Creek and the San Tan Valley area.

Epcor Senior Vice President Shawn Bradford said he and other Epcor officials quickly realized there were "significant" issues in Johnson Utilities' infrastructure.

"When we started to hear about some of the challenges down in San Tan, we went down on a few site visits and started to poke around," Bradford said. "We looked into the utility, toward some of the sites and recognized that this was in dire need of improvements."

As Johnson fought in the courts for control of his company, Epcor officials replaced broken and deficient pumps, added alarms to prevent sewage overflows and purchased infrastructure to treat water with high nitrate and arsenic levels.

Epcor ultimately purchased Johnson Utilities in 2021. One of its first promises was to replace the Section 11 sewer plant.

Under its ownership, Bradford said officials also have reduced water loss due to pipe leaks, improved customer service and begun reconfiguring the area's sewer system to rely on gravity rather than lift stations equipped with pumps.

"That's really how you build an efficient wastewater system, is you find the lowest points in the system to build your wastewater treatment plants," Bradford said. "You collect all that flow by gravity. And that's essentially what we're kind of doing now."

But paying for that new infrastructure won't be cheap. Epcor poured about $40 million of Johnson Utilities' money into repairing and upgrading infrastructure when the company took over its operations. Since then, Bradford said Epcor has invested about $150 million of its own dollars, of which $80 million went into the new Copper Basin Water Reclamation Plant.

That means customers can expect rates to increase — although Bradford couldn't say exactly how much bills will go up.

Epcor intends to file a rate case with the Corporation Commission for its San Tan District, he said, and will ask regulators to consolidate it with some of its other districts. That plan, if approved, would spread out the expense of the infrastructure upgrades across a larger customer base.

Setting San Tan Valley up to boom

The Section 11 plant currently processes about 1.2 million gallons of wastewater per day.

The facility was initially built to handle up to 1.6 million gallons per day, Rogers said. But the plant's technology is outdated, and Epcor officials say there's no way it can process much more wastewater than its current load.

Years ago, the company told developers and Pinal County officials that they would have to limit growth in the area served by the Section 11 plant while the new Copper Basin wastewater facility was built.

More houses and more people meant more wastewater that Section 11 wasn't designed to deal with.

Since then, Epcor's meter management program has limited developers in the area to two new water meters per month. But the new Copper Basin plant has far more wastewater capacity and will change the game, Rogers said. It means developers can start building a lot more homes.

"They're waiting," Rogers said. "We meet with the developers monthly and they drill us with questions."

Rogers said the new plant uses microorganisms to "concentrate what Mother Nature does in rivers and lakes." It can break down waste within a matter of hours. Located a few hundred feet away from the Copper Basin residential community, it also has extensive odor control technology.

Once processed, water from the plant will be of drinkable quality. Epcor officials say it will be used to recharge local aquifers, recycling water for the future. Solids from the process will be suitable for landfills and fertilizer, officials said.

During its first few weeks, Epcor officials said they will divert a few hundred thousand gallons per day from Section 11 to the Copper Basin plant.

Once the plant is fully online, it will be equipped to handle nearly all of the wastewater produced in the district on a daily basis. By the end of the year, officials hope it will have a capacity of at least 3 million gallons of wastewater per day.

They expect that number to grow to about 10 million gallons per day at full buildout.

"We'll build it out in increments over time as growth demands for it," Bradford said. "We have to be very careful that we don't overbuild it and build too much too fast, but we also have to keep up with the pace at which growth occurs."

As the new wastewater plant ramps up, Epcor officials will work toward decommissioning the old Section 11 facility. They intend to close the plant by the end of 2025.

After that, the land will be used for another purpose — possibly even housing.

"It can be anything," Rogers said. "We've got some interest from developers."

Sasha Hupka covers county government and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you live in San Tan Valley and have a tip to share? Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New sewage plant to end utility saga, propel growth in San Tan Valley