By Any Other Name...

With apologies to The Bard, "that which we call water by any other name would smell as sweet..." Okay, maybe water doesn't fit in the sentence as well as a rose, and certainly not the type of water I'm about to discuss, but the truth remains that water in the desert is precious, no matter how it smells.

The East Valley Tribune has an article today heralding the opening of Gilbert's newest wastewater treatment plant:

A new wastewater treatment plant — expected to become one of the largest in the state in coming decades — will open within a month in Gilbert.

The Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant, on 160 acres at Greenfield and Germann roads, will allow Mesa and Gilbert to treat more sewage and trade the resulting reclaimed water for more drinking water.

Why would I find this news article worthy of attention? Because the Town of Gilbert provides the reclaimed water that Morrison Ranch uses to irrigate our turf and trees. Newcomers to my front porch might not know that our intent in designing Morrison Ranch is to maintain the agricultural heritage of yesterday's Gilbert. It's why our street themes are trees and grass instead of a desert landscape with decomposed granite. The Mister's forebears cleared the land by hand and planted crops; we don't want to waste a drop of that sweat equity by taking the land back to desert. We currently receive our reclaimed water from the Neely treatment plant over by Cooper and Elliot; but water is water, and with the growth of Gilbert (and Queen Creek, who will also benefit from this new plant) and Mesa, it is good to know that the ability to process wastewater is increasing along with the population.

What about the smell? The article talks about mitigating the smell:

Residents spent months reviewing plans for the $160 million plant and helping design its appearance to ease concerns that it will smell or have a bad appearance. Haney said efforts are under way to ensure during the treatment of sewage, no smells are released to the community.

“There’s always the potential odors could develop because it is a wastewater treatment plant,” Haney said. “We’re doing what can to avoid that.”

Mesa has been successful in disguising plants and preventing smells in the past, he added.

The plant may be one of Arizona's largest, but not for several years:

“When it’s done, it will most likely be about the third largest waste water treatment plant in the state, when it’s built out in 15-20 years,” Haney said.

The plant, planned since 1997, will treat 16 million gallons of water a day during the first phase, but within 30 years treat as much as 52 million gallons a day. It will ensure water and sewage treatment is available for coming development, and eventually serve large parts of Gilbert and Queen Creek, and about the eastern quarter to one third of Mesa, he said.

For more information on how we use reclaimed water on Morrison Ranch, I'll direct you to this February post, and remind you that this is why we have the purple signs throughout the community.

This is a welcome opening, and kudos go to the Gilbert planning staff for their foresight. It's the ultimate example of "living green."