NAU WEF Capstone 2019

The purpose of this project was to rehabilitate Cave Creek Water Reclamation Plant that has been inactive for over a decade and to compete on the state level against the teams from other universities that were also working on this project.

The scope of work performed included reviewing current water quality regulations for effluent use options, analysis of historic wastewater quality data for the collection system, projections of population growth in the sewer collection area, conservative estimate of future flow and loading based off population projections, evaluation of selected treatment technologies to address areas needing improvement, proposed cost of expansions and improvements for future construction phases and evaluation of effluent use options.

Our team has won the 2019 Student Design Competition in the State of Arizona

and will be competing on the national level in Chicago in the Fall of 2019.

Our Clients

AZ Water Association

AZ Water is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 1928 with a membership of 2,200 water/wastewater professionals dedicated to preserving and enhancing Arizona's water environment.

WEF

The Water Environment Federation is a not-for-profit association that provides technical education and training for thousands of water quality professionals who clean water and return it safely to the environment.

NAU

WEF design competition is a capstone project that has been assigned to our team and is required by NAU in order to earn a Bachelors degree. Our team will also represent NAU at state competition.

Our Team

Hadley Habeck

Project Manager

hmh228@nau.edu

Hadley is senior studying Environmental Engineering and French. She plans to pursue a career in water and wastewater engineering with a long-term goal of improving water quality in developing regions of the world.

Katie Dougherty

Lead Designer

kld286@nau.edu

Katie Dougherty is a senior at Northern Arizona University studying Civil Engineering. After college, Katie will be working at Kimley-Horn as a Civil Analyst for their Water and Wastewater design team.

Hunter Stacey

Project Engineer

shs76@nau.edu

Hunter is a Civil Engineering major graduating in May 2019. He plans to work in water resources after he graduates with a goal of working with Dams and flood control. Hunter currently works for NAU Facility Services.

Artem Lezhniuk

CAD Drafter

al2637@nau.edu

Artem Lezhniuk is a senior at Northern Arizona University majoring in Civil Engineering. Upon graduation he wants to pursue a career either in the field of land development or hydrology/hydraulics.

Technical Adviser

Terry E. Baxter Ph.D., P.E.

Terry.Baxter@nau.edu

Assoc. Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northern Arizona University.

Project Information

The Cave Creek Water Reclamation Plant (CCWRP) was initially built to support the development north of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal. The plant produced Class A+ reclaimed water for irrigation and recharge within the service area. The CCWRP has been inactive since November of 2009 due to a decrease in projected population and development north of Loop 101. The location and the site map of the CCWRP are available in the document section below.

The City of Phoenix plans to reopen the CCWRP by 2025. This will require plant expansions based off future flow predictions, reevaluation of plant operations, and recommended effluent use. Plant expansions will occur in 3 phases:

Phase 1: Initial 2003 construction with a maximum capacity of 8 million gallons per day (MGD), this flow will be surpassed by the 2025 reopening
Phase 2: Maximum capacity of 20 MGD, anticipated peak flow rate to be reached in 2037
Phase 3: Maximum capacity of 33 MGD, anticipated peak flow rate to be reached in 2050

The evaluation of existing conditions yielded six areas of improvement; pump station, headworks, grit removal, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, desalination, and energy source.