How a Valley wastewater treatment plant cools nuclear power plant, feeds Salt River
The 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant plays an important role in making sure Valley wastewater doesn’t go to waste.
Sewage water is treated at the facility at 91st Avenue and Roeser Road in Tolleson before it can be recycled.
Half of the treated water is sent to a nuclear plant for cooling, and the other half goes to a man-made wetlands before it’s discharged back into the environment.
As one of the largest facilities of its kind in the Southwest, the 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant receives sewage from 2.6 million people in Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale and Phoenix. The city of Phoenix is the majority owner and operates the plant, which can treat up to 230 million gallons of water a day.
“The idea is to separate all the solids from the liquids and then there’s processes that remove the dissolved solids that are in the liquids as well,” Assistant Water Services Director Nazario Prieto said. “We separate those, we send the liquid stream one way and the solid stream another way.”
How is wastewater treatment plant effluent used?
Once the solids are removed and it’s been through a couple of other processes, about half of the treated wastewater, also known as effluent, is sent to the Palo Verde Generating Station in Tonopah.
“The Palo Verde nuclear plant is still the only nuclear plant in the world that is not next to a large body of water, and that’s because of the agreement and the water that it receives from the facility,” Prieto said.
The effluent is used to cool the nuclear plant. A small portion of the water is also used by a Buckeye irrigation company to water nonedible crops.