Sewage Treatment from 10,000 Feet

This photo taken while flying over Phoenix a couple of days ago will never replace Google Earth's. The windows of the jet looked like they had been cleaned with Brillo pads inside and out. I don't have a great camera, and the angle from window to treatment plant was just plain wrong. However, when you write a sewer blog, you are happy to have found fresh grist for the mill, or perhaps more precisely, not-so-fresh excretia in a traditional treatment mode.

Please employ the far better rendition off of Google Earth to get the true feel of this, where you can zoom down to gaze into the frothing currents of the aeration tanks! Fortunately, the resolution isn't so great that you can identify anything untoward in the clarifiers (the solid bundles probably didn't make it through the screening process intact anyway). The address to input into Google Earth for a better view is: 5615 South 91st Avenue, Tolleson, AZ.

There are two other treatment plants for Phoenix for which you can also Google Earth!

• 23rd Avenue - use these latitude and longitude coordinates for fun instead of an address:

33.424727, -112.111138

• Cave Creek - 22841 North Cave Creek Road
, Phoenix, AZ

For a little background of likely useless information:

• The wastewater system includes two city-owned wastewater plants (a third is not), almost 5,000 miles of sewer mains and 78,000 manholes.

• More than 250 million gallons of wastewater is treated each day, servicing about 2.5 million customers (just think, in 2016 we too will become "customers," not depositors into septic tanks!)

• More than 90 percent of Phoenix’s wastewater is highly treated and reused for crops, power generation and turf irrigation.

• Phoenix uses cameras and high tech equipment to clean grease, roots and other debris from about a third of its sewer lines each year.

• Numerous award-winning videos and public service announcements have been produced featuring actor Leslie Nielsen.

• The City of Phoenix Water Services Department is more than 100 years old.

• Phoenix, Arizona is the nation’s fifth largest city, encompassing about 540 square miles.

• There are about 30 sewage lift stations (don't they know for sure???).

For an interesting read on Maricopa County, the existing and planned wastewater treatment facilities, go peruse this pdf!

http://www.azmag.gov/documents/pdf/cms.resource/wastewater-treatment.pdf

For some fun photos of googled term "city Phoenix wastewater treatment plant" (although a nuclear power plant in Michigan found its way in this collection), visit:

http://www.google.com/search?q=city+phoenix+wastewater+treatment+plant&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=lG6uU4-gEcr9oASGh4DICA&ved=0CBsQsAQ4Cg&biw=1439&bih=679

What I Found Out

I went to the project office today at 2025 Tenth Street to find out about my lateral and what could be done about faucets that have no visible means of modification to reach the targeted goals of 1.5 gallons per minute or less. (I had gone online and found that my unmodifiable kitchen faucet for instance could put out 2.5 gpm, yikes!)

I met Michelle Houser who is the Community Liaison and who is really someone interested in getting you to the right place for answers. Very helpful! (Don't be bashful, she will put you at ease immediately!)

Michelle told me that I will need to get a pre-inspection on my faucets and the contact person to schedule that is Ray Dienzo at 788-6633. He is the Water Conservation Manager. That number will get you to a message service and he will call back as soon as humanly possible, but it might take two days, the office has been swamped lately.

Next person I needed to see was the "lateral guy," and I don't know if the same person fills that role every day that the office is open or not, but I met with Tim Cate at the next desk over who also was really helpful and perfectly patient with my endless questions. I had a whole-neighborhood lateral print-out I had made from a pdf file that had been sent to me ages ago by a Public Works guy and it really didn't mean much to me. I needed a translator!

Apparently mine was the same file from the old project and it was in Tim's big book of lateral plans. I have heard other parts of town had some lateral changes, so if you are concerned where your lateral actually is, do visit the Tenth Street office and get the guided tour.

Tim brought up my house on Google Earth Street View so he was able to show me the side of my property where the lateral will go. Many of us have ignored where the right of way actually is and filled in that big blank spot with flowers (OK, some weeds too) and in my case a bear statue. I will need to plan for eight feet to be cleared around where the lateral will go in that right of way. I can be less wide than eight feet where I pick up the line past the County-easement part on my property, I intend to hire a person to hand dig it the rest of the way to save as many plants as I can. Rotator cuff surgery is my excuse not to dig it myself!

Here is something else I learned. The County won't be allowed to dig up any trees. So if a tree has grown on top of the path to your lateral, you might want to find out how to handle that. You might need a re-route of your lateral, and as I said yesterday, time is almost up to make those changes. I see trees cut down all the time around here, but have no idea if the proper procedure was followed or not. I found this general ordinance online for us in the Coastal Zone,

"Coastal:

No tree over 8” in diameter at 4’ from the ground may be removed or killed unless a permit is first issued.   A permit can only be issued if the tree meets certain criteria.   If you feel you have a hazardous tree, or one that is damaging utilities or your house, please call us for an inspection."
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/planning/Ordinance_Compliance_and_Enforcement/Code_Enforcement_Frequently_Asked_Questions.htm

Don't be caught flat-footed when lateral time comes to your house!

Expect to see a stake placed in your yard prior to construction on your street. This is where your lateral will go. Don't forget to visit the interactive map to see the estimated time that construction will begin on your street. Be sure to check back frequently as due to the nature of construction, especially in this archeologically sensitive area, your time may have shifted. Here is the link, and click on as close as possible to where your house actually is to get an accurate reading!

https://gisapps.hdrprojects.com/LosOsos/index.html

I lucked out on a slowdown in the pre-inspection office, I got a call back from Ray less than two hours later! My appointment is for Friday at 1:00 - I'll report how that went!