DESCRIPTION/FORMATION

The Fountain Hills Sanitary District is a governmental entity (special district) that is not affiliated with the Town of Fountain Hills. The District’s sole purpose is to collect, treat, and dispose of wastewater and its by-products.

The District’s boundaries include the Town of Fountain Hills (except the former State Trust Land annexed by the Town in 2006) and a very small portion of the City of Scottsdale. The area served is approximately 12,000 acres.

The District was formed on July 21, 1969 in accordance with Arizona Revised Statutes Title 36.

FINANCE

The District is empowered to tax and collect fees and has been authorized via elections on March 30, 1971 and June 12, 1973 to sell bonds totaling $20,910,000. The entire authorization was sold by 1995 and paid off by 2005.

GOVERNANCE

From its formation on July 21, 1969 until August 9, 1999, the District was governed by a three-person board. At that time, a resolution was passed by the Board of Directors in accordance with ARS Title 48 to increase from three members to five.

A listing of board members since the District’s formation is shown in Table 1.

MANAGEMENT/OPERATION

The day to day operation of the District is conducted by the District Manager. In 1987, the operation was divided into three sections, Plant Operations, Collection System Operations, and Administration. Each section is managed by a Section Manager under the general direction of the District Manager.

A listing of District Managers since the time of formation is shown in Table 2.

FACILITIES

It was originally planned to locate the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) adjacent to Ashbrook Wash along the Fountain Hills/Fort McDowell boundary. However, during the Maricopa County review process, Fort McDowell requested that the WWTP be located further west by at least a mile. A seven acre site was located west of the confluence of Ashbrook and Balboa Washes. The site did not extend all of the way to Saguaro Blvd. leaving approximately four acres between the plant site and Saguaro Blvd.

The first phase of the WWTP was not completed until 1974. The initial capacity was 0.3 million gallons per day (MGD). Homes were served by either individual or community septic tank and leach field systems until wastewater collection lines and pump stations were constructed to convey sewage to the WWTP for treatment.

In 1980, the District Board became concerned about not having enough land to expand the WWTP as well as what it was going to do with its growing amount of effluent. MCO Properties agreed to trade the District the four acres of land adjacent to Saguaro Blvd. for the rights to its effluent.

The District’s WWTP was improved or expanded by projects in 1981-1982, 1982-1983, 1985-1986, 1988-1989, 1990-1991, 1996-1997, 2000-2001, and 2008-2009. These projects are described in Table 3.

The effluent or reclaimed water produced by the District’s WWTP was and continues to be used to fill Fountain Lake. However, by the early 1980’s, reclaimed water production exceeded its use in the lake. Consequently, from fall through spring, vacant land on the south and west sides of the community were overseeded with desert grasses and the land was irrigated with the excess reclaimed water.

As the population increased, additional reclaimed water was produced and additional acreage had to be overseeded and irrigated with the excess effluent.

By 1993, land used for temporary turf irrigation was being removed from service and used to build houses. This led to problems with the District’s effluent water balance. As a result, MCO and the District were required to enter into a Consent Judgment with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. MCO was required to construct storage lakes which are now a part of the FireRock Country Club Golf Course. These storage lakes were used to store excess effluent in the winter.

In 1995, MCO Properties and the District jointly funded a study to determine what options were available for disposing of excess reclaimed water. These options included, discharge to a wash, construction of dams to store additional excess reclaimed water, recharge or aquifer storage and recovery, or pipe it to another sewer entity.

In 1998, MCO Properties decided it wanted out of the effluent business. The District assumed ownership, operation, and maintenance of the system. However, the District found itself having to figure out what to do with its growing effluent excess. After examining the options, it was decided to construct an advanced water treatment facility (AWTF) to further treat the effluent before recharge and aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells which allowed the District to seasonally store water in the ground during the winter for use by the golf courses and parks in the summer when the reclaimed water demand exceeded the supply from the WWTP. These facilities began operation in February of 2001.

The AWTF was improved or expanded by projects in 2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2012-2013.