Pima County partners with the City of Boise to produce purified water
PIMA COUNTY – Pima County’s AZ Pure Water Brew Challenge mobile purification truck and team will hit the road at the end of August to help the City of Boise pilot its own pure water project. The City of Boise and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality aim to show residents that with the proper technology, municipally treated reuse water can meet drinking water standards.
Following a successful year-long campaign in 2017, the AZ Pure Water Brew Challenge, led by the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department and its Southwest Water Campus partners, helped change the perception regarding recycled water in many Arizona communities and provided a pathway for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to lift the prohibition on potable reuse in the state. Not surprisingly, the project piqued the interest of municipalities across the nation, including the City of Boise, who wanted to do the same.
“In absence of a project to help spearhead this effort, they reached out to us,” said RWRD’s Deputy Director Jeff Prevatt. “They wanted to contract the use of not only our treatment process and expertise, but to pattern the Idaho effort after our very successful efforts here in Arizona.”
With County support, Boise is on its way to launching its own pilot project, the Pure Water Brew Boise.
The mobile purification facility truck and Pima County’s team of experts will visit Boise from Aug. 26 – 31 for a week’s worth of water production and instruction. The unit, which produces nearly 3 gallons per minute, will yield about 5,000 gallons of direct potable reuse water to fuel Boise’s Pure Water project.
During the visit, Pima County’s team will not only teach Boise operators how to run the mobile unit, but also equip them with the knowledge of advanced treatment technologies and resources necessary to make their pure water project a success. A University of Arizona team will also be present for documenting virus removal performance of the system.
To keep up with Pima County’s efforts in Boise, visit the Pima County Facebook page for daily updates and more.