Despite temperatures in the triple digits, the Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission got a firsthand look at the proposed site of a 1.5 million gallon water tank off State Route 179.

The commission toured the grounds just off Mallard Drive on Tuesday, Aug. 7, in anticipation of its Tuesday, Aug. 21, meeting in which Arizona Water Company will be appearing before the city for the first time on this matter. The company hosted several community meetings over the last two years to discuss the proposal.

“The importance of a site visit is to provide an opportunity for the commission to understand the conditions of a site, including its surroundings which provide context for the decision making that will occur within the prescribed criteria for the review of a conditional use permit,” Assistant Community Development Director Warren Campbell said.

“The site visit resulted in the commission gaining a better understanding of the location, topography and surroundings of the proposed water tank and booster station facility.”

Arizona Water Company is seeking to build a new tank that will not only provide service reliability for residents but will also help better serve in the event of a fire.

“We are proposing this storage project in order to make sure that the surrounding community’s water demands, water supply sources, storage and booster pump station requirements are being reliably and adequately met,” the company’s website states.

According to the company, the project would include:

• Water storage tank with up to a 1.5 million gallon capacity.
• Most of the tank will not be visible because it will be built underground.
• Operational facilities will be built on top of the reservoir in an architectural style similar to surrounding homes.
• A booster pump station will be capable of delivering up to 3,000 gallons per minute.

Before the first shovel can be placed in the ground, the company must first go through the city’s lengthy vetting process and obtain a conditional use permit. If approved, this would be the first tank the company has installed in Sedona in more than 20 years. 

During a community meeting in January, company spokesman Rick Ruiz led the discussion and said that during construction the plan would be to dig 30 feet down in order to conceal the majority of the tank.

The ideal manner of doing so would be to blast the bedrock, saving several weeks of digging. The blasted area would be topped with a protective matting that ramatically cuts down on debris and noise.

Ruiz said upward of 15,000 cubic feet of bedrock from the site will be removed. One to two rock trucks will haul material from the site each hour, using a 0.4-mile route through neighborhoods to State Route 179.

The company has yet to determine where the materials will be taken. After four to five months for excavation,
there will be a steady stream of cement trucks coming to and from the site. The entire project is supposed to take up to nine months.

“We understand there is going to be a big impact,” Ruiz said at that meeting.

Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 122, or email reland@larsonnewspapers.com