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Tucson's EMPACT Grant

Tucson Water, in collaboration with the University of Arizona, county and state agencies, water quality and conservation organizations, local schools and stakeholder groups, and private industry, is conducting a water resources and quality monitoring, management, and public information project vital to the environmental protection, economic growth, and public health and confidence of the Tucson community. The EPA's EMPACT (Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking) program is intended to provide public access to clearly-communicated, time-relevant, useful, and accurate environmental monitoring data to assist the public in day-to-day decision-making about their health and the environment.

The City of Tucson is one of the largest cities in the US that currently obtains its drinking water supply from groundwater. To achieve future sustainability (and manage growing groundwater depletion and land subsidence issues) and driven by state statute, Tucson turned to supplementing its groundwater supply with Central Arizona Project (CAP) water from the Colorado River. The City has developed a graduated approach to introduce CAP water culminating in the Central Avra Valley Storage and Recovery Project (CAVSARP). CAVSARP will provide a carefully selected blend of recharged Colorado River water and groundwater to the community — known as the Clearwater Supply — thereby providing a renewable drinking water supply, lessening dependence on Tucson's primary aquifer, and reducing the potential for subsidence in the metropolitan area. This project seeks to aid the introduction of this alternate and necessary source of supply by informing the public of the quality of this new drinking water supply at their taps in homes and businesses, and associated water resource and environmental benefits through a focused consumer outreach effort that can serve as a national model for communities anticipating future changes in water supply and quality.

The overall objectives of the proposed project are:

  1. Environmental Parameter Monitoring/Measurement:
    • Increase water quality parameters currently being measured, adding extensive continuous on-line sampling and monitoring of the quality of potable, and of the quantity and general quality of recycled wastewater and secondary effluent discharged to the Santa Cruz River
    • Expand monitoring technology to include a new technology for measuring total trihalomethanes, suspected human carcinogens which are formed when drinking water is disinfected with chlorine
  2. Information Management, Processing, and Delivery:
    • Improve time relevancy of access to water quality data in the potable distribution system
    • Develop methods of transmitting and checking the quality of data to provide data in a near real-time setting
  3. Communication:
    • Provide more individual information for customers by identifying specific constituencies and soliciting feedback, and by creating methods to individualize data by location
    • Create a context for understanding water resources data, thus removing misperceptions
    • Serve as a source of reliable, authoritative information on fast-breaking water quality issues

Building on the City's innovative water quality public information program, At The Tap, the successful pilot-scale water quality demonstration program in four Tucson-area neighborhoods featuring the new water supply, the Ambassador Neighborhoods Program, and stakeholder input through the City's Livable Tucson strategic planning process, this project will assemble information on the quality of drinking water available to the community, and track the water supply through various uses and treatments. Water quality parameters will be monitored online at selected sites in the treated water distribution system so consumers can have confidence that their water meets all Federal, State and community-driven health and aesthetic standards. Some of the sources to be monitored include the amount of water withdrawn from the local well fields, in addition to the recharge well field, so consumers can appreciate how their efforts are helping to meet sustainability goals and manage subsidence. The amount of wastewater that is treated and returned to the Santa Cruz River for riparian habitat enhancement and longer-term recharge and recovery and the quality of the water that is recycled for irrigation purposes will also be relayed, highlighting conservation efforts and the nature of the water-use cycle in water-short regions.

The quantity and quality elements of the transition to full-scale operation of the CAVSARP project will be fully shared with the public. CAVSARP will provide an initial 20,000 acre-feet/year of drinking water beginning in early 2001, expanding to 60,000 acre-feet/year by 2003. The specific parameters to be collected and disseminated focus on three components: water quality parameters that are common to all water systems; specific water quality parameters that focus on public health in water and wastewater treatment; and the volume of water flowing through the cycle. Water quality parameters to be monitored for all flows include pH, conductivity, temperature, hardness, and tracer anions. Specific parameters that are important for public health and will be monitored in the drinking water system include pH, disinfectant residuals, total trihalomethanes (TTHM), a regulated disinfection byproduct (DBP) and suspected human carcinogen, fluoride and nitrate.

This project will identify the water quality/quantity data desired by targeted groups and effective, state-of-the art methods to communicate this information. For example, this project will provide neighborhood residents the ability to identify their street addresses on a web site map, receive easily understandable results of nearby water monitoring stations, and obtain a real-time, water quality report on their drinking water. The information made available to Tucson Water customers in general and to such groups as the medical, Hispanic and Native American communities, and newer, faster monitoring and information management technology systems would further improve community confidence in Tucson Water's ability to deliver a safe and reliable water supply. The website would also include information regarding the health effects of drinking water contaminants.

As a result of this program, Tucson area water consumers will:

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