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​Questions​​

Customer Care and Project Inquiries:
1 (800) 383-0834
EPCOR is committed to providing customers with safe and reliable water and wastewater services and to being a good neighbor in our communities. ​

The Copper Basin Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) is the solution to longstanding issues with the Section 11 WRF in EPCOR's new San Tan wastewater district. The following information addresses questions about this important project – why it's needed, where we are today and where the project is headed. 

Background and project need​

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Copper Basin has been planned for over two decades as the safest and best long-term solution to the needs of the areas served by the issue-prone Section 11 plant. Section 11 does not reflect industry standards, uses outdated technology, and has seriously deteriorated over the years – at the same time that the population it serves has grown significantly. The facility uses an open-air, lagoon-style treatment process that is partially responsible for many of the issues customers have experienced.  ​

During EPCOR's time as Interim Manager we made as many improvements as possible to Section 11 – but today, nothing more can be done to improve it effectively. Ideally, Copper Basin would already have been built and providing service today.​

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To learn more about the proposed Copper Basin Water Reclamation Facility and why it is needed, you can view the December 2021 community information session here.

We are required by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to have the new Copper Basin facility providing service by December 2023 and to decommission Section 11 by 2025. ​​

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The Copper Basin Project Areas Served Timeline Facility Location
The Copper Basin Project
​The Copper Basin facility will be a fully-enclosed facility with state-of-the-art odor control equipment, extensive systems to monitor conditions round the clock and other important design features.​

EPCOR has vast experience building and maintaining safe, enclosed water reclamation environments that integrate unobtrusively into their communities. In addition to being fully enclosed, our facilities use biological processes rather than rely on chemicals to treat wastewater. Our Verrado and Anthem (north Phoenix) facilities are examples of this approach, as is the new Luke 303 Water Reclamation Facility currently under construction, and very similar to the facility planned for Copper Basin.

Copper Basin will use treatment technologies that meet the ADEQ's Best Available Demonstrated Control Technology (BADCT) requirements. The plant will also meet setback standards, be fully and safely enclosed, and will not be accessible via neighborhood streets. All noise-generating equipment will be contained in either a building or a sound-attenuation enclosure to provide sound mitigation.
Areas Served
​Copper Basin will serve roughly the same areas as the current Section 11 plant, homes as far north as Hash Knife Draw Road and as far south as Arizona Farms Road.
Timeline
​ADEQ requires EPCOR to decommission and replace the Section 11 plant by 2025, with construction on the Copper Basin facility slated to begin by January 2023. The first steps in the process are initial design and permitting, which must move forward as quickly as possible.


We recognize that customers and others may have ongoing questions about the project, and we're committed to transparency and responsiveness. We'll be posting updated project information and timelines on this page and staying in touch with customers in other ways throughout the process. 

Facility Location
​The proposed site for the Copper Basin plant is ideal for safe, clean operation of a water reclamation facility. While Section 11 is located on a high point that requires "lift" stations to convey wastewater to it, a much more efficient solution is to locate a plant at a lower point where it can operate naturally with gravity, as is the case with the proposed Copper Basin site.


The proposed location is also part of the Central Arizona Governments 208 Plan, which was approved in 2007 and the Copper Basin Planned Area Amendment, proposed in 1999. 

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