Governor to dedicate green Global Water Center

Maricopa soon will be home to Pinal County’s only nationally certified green utility building when Gov. Janet Napolitano comes to town May 18 to help dedicate the new Global Water Center.

The center, at 22590 North Powers Parkway, will be the first LEED certified building in its class in the county. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

“We built it to the gold standard,” said Global Water Resources spokesman Paul Walker.

The designation is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council to buildings that incorporate energy efficient and environmentally sound features. Points are given for such things as using recycled materials, buying materials nearby (thereby reducing trucking pollution), energy efficiency and using resources efficiently. Gold is the next-to-the-highest standard.

Befitting its industry and mission, the Global Water building recycles water through two pressurized lines. One is the standard line that brings treated water into the building for general use. The other uses recycled water to flush toilets in the building and water the outside landscaping. That should save an estimated 30 percent of the water a similar building might use, according to Global Water.

Global Water also got points for using common household products such as foam trays and aluminum cans in its roofing, insulation, counters and exterior walls.

The company needed the center to house customer service staff for its growing population in western Pinal County, plus a place for engineering and construction staff. Walker said the best way to show the public that water recycling make sense is to demonstrate it in its own building.

That’s also why part of the center is dedicated to public education, with exhibits and displays about water history, planning and sustainability.

Recycling water is important because Arizona’s growth curve is going to require more water to handle expected population and to live a comfortable lifestyle. Walker quotes SRP General Manager Dick Silverman: “You should only use water once if you believe you should only use a dollar bill once.”

At Global Water, Walker said, reclaimed water is treated with biological processes, then ultraviolet light, then some chlorine before it is reused for irrigation and “probable human contact” uses, such as watering a golf course. It’s an investment – which means it isn’t free.

The argument is that it makes the most sense to build a system to use recycled water for secondary uses, keeping more of the best water for human consumption.

The cheapest way to run a water company is to pump groundwater, treat it for human consumption and deliver it, then take the effluent and treat it to minimum government-required standards and dump it in a wash.

“You can’t keep looking out for just what’s the cheapest way but what’s the most sustainable way,” Walker said.

The center’s architect was Deutsch and Associates of Phoenix, and the contractor was Adolfson & Peterson, Inc. of Tempe.

Illustration courtesy of Global Water