State rejects APS request to pump water for Palo Verde
The state says Arizona Public Service Co. can’t pump “poor quality” groundwater from the Buckeye area to cool the nuclear power plant west of Phoenix because the water is already being used by nearby residents.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources rejected an application APS submitted in February to pump groundwater, which the company hoped to study as an alternative to expensive reclaimed water from the 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The letter said that opponents of the well proved that “despite generally poor water quality in the area, the water at issue in this application is and has been used for multiple purposes for a substantial period of time.”
The permit APS was seeking is for water that has no other beneficial use. The utility wanted to drill an initial well off State Route 85 between Interstate 10 and the Gila River in the far West Valley.
APS proposed pumping as much as 10,000 acre-feet of water a year and blending the groundwater with the treated effluent that is piped to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station from the water-treatment plant.
One acre-foot is enough water to supply three single-family households in Phoenix for a year.
The Buckeye Water Conservation and Drainage District and Buckeye Irrigation Co. filed a formal opposition to the APS plan, and the director was pleased with the decision.
“We feel the director (of ADWR), after thoroughly reviewing the application and the opposition, made the correct decision,” said Noel Carter, general manager of the Buckeye water district.
Carter said it’s “a good assumption” that APS will appeal the decision.
APS officials have 30 days to file an appeal should they decide to do so.
“Palo Verde Generating Station has been a responsible and innovative user of recycled water to generate clean energy for more than 30 years,” APS said in a prepared statement. “Approval of this application would have continued that innovation and stewardship of our resources. We are aware of the decision, which is disappointing, and we are reviewing it to decide our next steps.”
Water quality, uses disputed
APS said in its permit request that the Buckeye Water Conservation and Drainage District pumps 25,000 to 30,000 acre-feet of this groundwater annually and dumps it in the Gila River bed.
APS officials characterized that as a waste.
Both sides agree that without such drainage, the groundwater in part of the Buckeye district would nearly reach the surface, fields of crops would not drain properly, and the high-saline groundwater would damage the crops.
Carter said while the Buckeye water district does drain some water from the region to protect crops, it also pumps groundwater to irrigate crops.
But ADWR’s rejection was focused on the fact that other people use the water APS is targeting.
State officials interviewed dairy farmer Bill Kerr, who lives near the APS proposed well site and found Kerr has two wells on his property, for the dairy and for his home.
Kerr doesn’t filter the water before using it, the rejection letter said.
The department found three other homes using well water in the area.
The “poor-quality” permit APS was seeking requires the water to have “no other beneficial use at the present time.”
“The Department finds that this groundwater is currently being used beneficially and that this objection provides a valid reason to deny the application,” the letter said.
The state disagreed with some of the opponents’ arguments against APS and didn’t consider others because they were not relevant considering the water was being used.
But the state did mention in its letter that groundwater in the area has been facing increased use. It said that groundwater pumping for irrigation in the “Buckeye Water Logged Area” has increased in recent years to 100,000 acre-feet a year from about 30,000 acre-feet a year.
One reason pumping has increased, the state department said, is because Palo Verde has been taking more water from the treatment plant that formerly went to the irrigation district. That has prompted the district to pump more.
APS officials said before the decision was made that the nuclear plant, which makes more electricity each year than any other power plant of any type in the country, needs to find ways to run more economically.
“If we don’t get some kind of innovative approach to water, 20 or 30 years down the road, the costs would just be prohibitive,” said Jack Cadogan, senior vice president of site operations at Palo Verde for APS. “We’ve always known we would be looking for innovative, cost-effective solutions for water.”
Palo Verde uses about 65 million gallons of treated wastewater every day — more than 23 billion gallons a year — to generate electricity.
The contract with five cities to sell the plant the treated wastewater was renewed in 2010 and runs through 2050. The water gets more expensive in the latter years of the deal, particularly after 2025.