Guest Editorial: Can We Follow the Plan?

By Councilwoman Solange Whitehead

Should Scottsdale Residents Pay Double for Water?

The current Council majority has gone to great lengths—and at ratepayers’ expense—to work around Scottsdale’s Water Strategic Plan, an adopted plan designed to keep our water flowing, safe, and affordable.

The latest proposal would further delay Scottsdale’s Advanced Water Purification facility—the most cost-effective and secure source of new water—and could potentially double the cost of treating water.

The “big” idea? Discharge Scottsdale’s highly treated wastewater into the Central Arizona Project (CAP) system in exchange for raw CAP water. That CAP water includes treated wastewater from Nevada.

Here are a few questions and concerns:

1. Should ratepayers pay twice to treat their drinking water? And not diversify?

Ratepayers will have to pay to treat water twice.  First for the water discharged into the canal and again for the raw CAP water.

Let’s remember, our overdependence on Colorado River water is the problem.  This proposal doubles down on the problem we must  solve.

2. How does this strengthen the regional water supply?

The City Manager says the proposal will “strengthen the regional supply.”

How?   If Scottsdale puts a cup of water into the canal and takes a cup out, I don’t see how the regional supply has changed.

With our drinking-water shortage, it makes no sense to send treated water downstream.

3. The real hurdle: How long will it take—and what will it cost.

This exchange isn’t allowed under current CAP rules. Changing it could take years, requiring approval from numerous CAP customers, including Native American tribes. Scottsdale’s water crisis can’t wait for that process—so why pursue it?

Can we just stick to the adopted Water Strategic Plan?

We have lost two years by delaying the final treatment work at Scottsdale’s Advanced Water Purification facility, which is already up and running. ADEQ rules are still evolving, but that shouldn’t prevent us from moving forward.

Meanwhile, Phoenix is building three advanced water purification facilities from the ground up under the same evolving regulatory framework.

Water is too important for politics. We need to follow the Plan, and focus on a secure water future—one that Scottsdale residents can trust and afford.