Organized in 2007, the Upper Verde River Watershed Protection Coalition (UVRWPC) is a joint effort between the Town of Prescott Valley, City of Prescott, Town of Chino Valley, Yavapai County, and the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe. The coalition is committed to the protection of the Upper Verde River base flow, while balancing the reasonable water needs of both residents and businesses that reside within the watershed boundaries.
The Town of Prescott Valley has recently contracted Civiltec to design and implement a new rainwater harvesting and aquifer recharge pilot project. Located in the Town’s northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 69 and Fain Road, the project will demonstrate the costs and benefits of recharging the aquifer with rainwater harvested from a rooftop, as compared to storing the harvested water in a cistern or other man-made container.
This project includes utilizing an existing storage structure to collect rainwater that will be the source of supply for recharge. Other equipment may need to be added to the system, including a sub-surface French drain/leach trench, piping, flow metering, and additional monitoring equipment. Aside from project and construction management, Civiltec will assist with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s (ADEQ) Dry Well Registration and Yavapai County Building permits.
The project will be operated for two years to assess feasibility and to demonstrate costs and benefits. The preliminary analysis of the potential benefits indicated that approximately 400 percent more water can be captured for a cost of approximately half that of a traditional rainwater harvesting system!
Chris Dusza will lead the team’s analysis and design efforts as Project Manager. Rick Shroads, Andy Shroads, and Raymond Buettner round out the Civiltec team.
The new pilot project kicked off in June 2017. Civiltec anticipates completing final design tasks by June 2019.
