Phoenix firm honored for Yuma water plant

A Phoenix engineering firm has been recognized for the work it did with the city of Yuma during the design and construction of the state-of-the-art Agua Viva Water Treatment Plant.

Carollo Engineers, the country’s largest firm devoted solely to water and wastewater engineering, is a 2009 recipient of an American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona Engineering Excellence Award in the water and wastewater category.

The ACEC Engineering Excellence Award Program honors engineering achievements that demonstrate ingenuity and significant technical, economic and social advancement.

ACEC AZ recognized Carollo for the firm’s key role in using innovative water treatment technologies, establishing regulatory requirements and facilitating the implementation of the Yuma project.

“Carollo’s leadership among project team members and stakeholders promoted active participation and effective communication that facilitated the technological and engineering decisions critical to meeting the operational objectives of the Agua Viva Water Treatment Facility,” said Kathleen Carroll, Yuma’s water/wastewater treatment manager, in a prepared statement.

Led by Carollo partner David Sobeck, the Phoenix firm collaborated with Yuma city staff to evaluate and design the Agua Viva facility to meet the city’s long-term water supply, treatment and water quality plan.

Agua Viva's roots go back to a little plant that became operational in 1983 on Avenue 9E near 24th Street with the capacity to  produce 1 million gallons of potable water a day.

With completion last summer of the $74 million construction project, Agua Viva now has the capacity to treat 24 million gallons of surface water a day plus another 9 million gallons of groundwater a day. It was designed so it could treat just surface water or just groundwater or a combination of the two.

The new plant uses an innovative membrane filtration system that removes 99.99 percent of all bacteria, viruses and parasites, Carroll said in an earlier article.

Carollo collaborated closely with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to establish appropriate testing and monitoring requirements for the system's use at Agua Viva, which is the first such plant permitted in the state.