Arizona officials try to recreate long vanished river using wastewater

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http://tucson.com/news/science/environment/santa-cruz-river-could-flow-again-through-downtown-tucson/article_1aac5f08-445f-544a-bb26-5612858a43da.html

>The long-dead Santa Cruz River could flow again within two years.

>Tucson Water, which had opposed the idea for years, unveiled a blueprint last week for putting heavily treated wastewater in the river through downtown Tucson. Officials call the plan “Agua Dulce,” Spanish for sweet water.

>The idea would be to pump the effluent uphill from a sewage treatment plant northwest of the city via an existing pipeline south to 29th Street. From there, effluent would run downhill through the city’s core; the Santa Cruz flows south to north. Officials don’t know yet know how far downstream the water would run.

>Similar plans have been proposed and discarded many times before, but the fact that the city’s water utility is pushing it for the first time could give it legs — particularly at a time when downtown is finally thriving.

>One of Tucson Water’s goals is to restore a stretch of the rich, natural riparian habitat that lined the river throughout much of the Tucson area until the mid-20th century. The utility also seeks to make the river a natural treasure that could generate tourism and economic development.

>On a less glamorous front, it wants better control of some of the city’s effluent, which now runs downriver far from the city out of two sewage plants.

>“This plan was 100 percent inspired by thoughts of Tucson and recasting a vision of what the Santa Cruz River through downtown should be in the future,” Tucson Water Director Tim Thomure said in an interview shortly after introducing the idea to a city water advisory committee Wednesday.
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