Prescott Valley has been chosen as having produced one of the top water resource projects in the world for 2007 in the wake of its water rights auction.
As a result of the highly successful auction, Town Manager Larry Tarkowski has been invited to present a paper at a water conference in London, England hosted by Global Water Intelligence magazine – a leading publication on the global water industry. GWI organizes a global water summit each year in a different capital city around the world. This year, the title of the conference is “Water, Finance and Sustainability 2008” and is organized in conjunction with the International Desalination Association.
In addition to Tarkowski, Water Ministers from several countries will speak at the London summit including Egypt, Libya and Turkey. The summit will take place in mid April.
The shortlist article sums up that Prescott Valley tasked WestWater Research to organize the innovative auction that ultimately sold 2,724 acre-feet of interests at a price of $24,650 per acre-foot – a yield of more than $67 million dollars towards funding alternative, 100-year assured water supplies to meet the needs of the future and meet its safe-yield goal.
Prescott Valley upgraded and expanded its wastewater treatment plant to further improve the plant’s capacity and recharge quality. Treated effluent then returns to the aquifer thus creating a higher, sustainability standard.
According to the same article highlighting the 2008 Water Awards Shortlist 2008, “Innovations such as this [auction] show that growth and the environment can advance hand in hand. This truly stunning deal shouts at 67 million decibels that there is value in wastewater reuse. The world has to listen.”