ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS

According to the 2000 census nearly a quarter of Arizona's population lives in rural communities. Many of these communities lack the resources needed to effectively manage their water resources (Arizona Water Resources Research Center, 2002), including their water and wastewater systems. While urban water and wastewater utilities have a highly-trained cadre of water professionals, smaller communities often rely on a patchwork of national (USGS, NRCS), and state agencies and associations (ASUA, ADWR, ADEQ) for technical expertise... Additionally, rising energy costs pose problems for rural water and wastewater systems, and will continue to do so. Substantial amounts of energy are required to move and treat potable water, and to treat wastewater and dispose of the associated waste streams. Because many such systems use over half of their energy budgets to move and treat water and wastewater, increasing energy costs add significant stress to O&M budgets... In rapidly-growing states like..

Primary location: Flagstaff United States