The Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWT) at the Scottsdale Water Campus has been performing indirect potable reuse – recharging ultra-purified water into the drinking water aquifer – for more than 30 years. The facility takes treated recycled water from the city’s conventional water reclamation plant and further treats it through ozonation, membrane ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet photolysis.

Select each tile below to see the purification process in action:

Since the early 1990s, the city of Scottsdale has been providing non-potable water to 23 golf courses in north Scottsdale through a public-private partnership known as the Reclaimed Water Distribution System (RWDS). The RWDS is a complex system of pipelines, booster pump stations and reclaimed and advanced water treatment facilities capable of delivering 20 million gallons a day of non-potable water for turf irrigation specifically to RWDS member clubs.

The RWDS was first conceived and negotiated by Desert Mountain Properties and the city of Scottsdale as a means of terminating north Scottsdale golf courses’ reliance on precious groundwater resources for irrigation. Through the agreement, Desert Mountain and 12 other golf clubs have invested $30 million to build and fund capital improvements to the system and are contributing a subsequent $22.5 million toward the expansion of the Advanced Water Treatment Facility to improve the quality of water being delivered.

Today, the city of Scottsdale owns and operates the RWDS with member clubs paying for both their respective water purchases and 100 percent of the system’s collective maintenance, operation and capital costs.

In the non-peak months when the courses do not need their daily water allotments, the city uses the excess purified water from the Advanced Water Treatment Facility for aquifer recharge through indirect potable reuse, further advancing Scottsdale’s long-term water sustainability.