Arizona Water Company and its consultants gave the Sedona City Council an annual update that ranged from operational details at the new East Sedona tank to a national regulatory timeline for PFAS, and presented revised groundwater demand projections and model scenarios that show conservation and treated effluent reuse materially reduce long-term aquifer drawdown.

The company said the East Sedona tank put into service this year is performing as intended and that recent high-flow testing activated site alarms because the system had not previously seen that volume. "The site's working just as it was designed," a company representative said, and clarified that the small building next to the tank contains pumps, valves and electrical equipment rather than being ornamental.

Environmental Compliance Manager Ryan Cavalier explained PFAS risk, monitoring and the compliance timetable adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "PFAS are a family of chemicals, often called forever chemicals because they end up in the environment," Cavalier said. He said EPA has set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for PFOA and PFOS at 4 parts per trillion and that the industry is preparing both for an initial monitoring period starting in 2027 and for the compliance phase that could require treatment or new sources by the end of the decade, though the final dates remain subject to federal rulemaking and litigation.

Cavalier said Arizona Water Company is completing pre-monitoring at well sites this year and plans the required distribution-point sampling (point-of-entry to distribution) that will occur on a quarterly basis in Sedona under the EPA scheme. "We're preparing for the monitoring period," he said, and noted Sedona will sample quarterly due to its population and source-water configuration. If the company's distribution monitoring shows concentrations above MCLs, treatment or source changes would be needed to comply.

Council members asked whether the administration of MCLs for additional PFAS compounds (sometimes called GenX chemicals) was handled properly by regulators and whether meeting MCLs is primarily a logistical or political challenge. Cavalier said the rulemaking process for some PFAS parameters has been litigated and that the practical challenges of meeting an MCL nationwide include technology availability and supply-chain timing. "I do believe that where it is logistical, because the technologies are required for every water system in the country," he said, adding the company expects to be among early adopters where local conditions require treatment.

Communications and customer-service changes were also announced. Jordan Christiansen, the company's community relations and communications coordinator, described "AWC Alerts," a geofenced mass-notification system using the OnSolve platform that will text and email customers who are affected by planned or unplanned outages. Customers will be auto-enrolled from the utility billing database, but staff said the company will run a data-update campaign to correct landlines and missing email addresses and will continue door-knocking for customers who cannot be reached electronically. Christiansen said the company can draw shapes on a map to target messages to small clusters of connections and that test messages in Sedona have shown high delivery rates.

Sedona city staff and Arizona Water Company representatives also reviewed progress on distribution and resilience projects: the Navajo Trail (Sabola Hills) main replacement is complete and is now with ADEQ; a booster station design and related APS infrastructure work are progressing; and a generator siting/prioritization study is complete and will inform future emergency-power installs.

Nathan Miller, the hydrologist from Matrix New World who led the groundwater modeling, presented updated demand and build-out projections and four model scenarios: groundwater-only, groundwater with conservation, groundwater with conservation plus effluent reuse, and a climate-change sensitivity run. Miller summarized the new demand work and said the updated build-out projection is 4,361 acre-feet per year. He said current withdrawals average a little over 3,000 acre-feet per year and that modeled 100-year drawdown under the groundwater-only scenario ranged by well from roughly 95 feet to about 200 feet, while conservation and effluent reuse reduced projected drawdown considerably at the wells examined.

"An acre-foot of water is about how much three houses use in a year," Miller said as part of the presentation.

Council members pressed for clarity about how treated effluent is represented in the charts and whether current recharge wells actually benefit Sedona. Presenters said the charts show effluent as a percentage of demand available if routed back into supply and that the recharge currently performed near the treatment plant generally trends toward the Verde system; shifts to reuse within Sedona would require additional infrastructure and agreements. Staff committed to return with a more detailed effluent-management plan and options in December.

What it means for Sedona: the model and demand work provide a technical basis to guide conservation programs, infrastructure investments and effluent-use planning. Company staff emphasized Sedona-specific monitoring and early preparations for PFAS rules: wellhead pre-monitoring is nearly complete, next-year distribution-point sampling plans are being finalized, and the company is pursuing designs for sites that may require PFAS treatment. The company told council it intends to pursue timely compliance rather than deferment where feasible.

Council and staff follow-ups requested: parcel-level build-out assumptions behind the demand numbers, a clarified graphic showing effluent role over time, and a December briefing on effluent reuse options and costs.

Speakers (attributed): John (Arizona Water Company representative); Ryan Cavalier, environmental compliance manager, Arizona Water Company; Jordan Christiansen, community relations and communications coordinator, Arizona Water Company; Terry C. Rossi, vice president of water resources, Arizona Water Company; Alex Fabb, water resources analyst, Arizona Water Company; Nathan Miller, hydrologist/groundwater modeler, Matrix New World; Carrie (city staff).