Green Valley Water is a proud sponsor of KRIM

KRIM’s Community Spotlight, hosted by Randy Roberson, offers listeners insight into local people, businesses, organizations, and what is happening in the Town of Payson and surrounding areas. Tune in to KRIM’s Community Spotlight on weekdays at 10:00 am or watch it on the KRIM-FM Facebook Page.

Interested in a Public Tour of Green Valley Water’s Facility?

Learn more or register for regularly scheduled tours of the Green Valley Water water reclamation facility.

Read the Transcript

Chris Higgins:

That’s right. A big thank you to Desert Financial for sponsoring the KRIM Community Spotlight Program. Good morning, Rim country. Chris Higgins in the studio this morning, filling in for Randy Roberson, and in the studio this morning, I have Mr. Garrett Goldman, the director-

Garrett Goldman:

District manager.

Chris Higgins:

District manager at Green Valley Water. So how are you doing this morning, Garrett?

Chris Higgins:

Doing good. Beautiful rain last night, so.

Chris Higgins:

Beautiful, beautiful rain. And since I saw you last, well, the last time I saw you was during a tour that you gave to Randy and me, so thank you for that. And we want to talk a little bit about that today. Also, if you’re listening on the radio, know that you can watch this community spotlight program on the KRIM FM Facebook page or on our YouTube channel. So if you are watching, hey, leave a comment. I have that up on my phone here in the studio. So if you have a question or a comment for Garrett or concerning Green Valley Water, please, post it on our Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Chris Higgins:

But Garrett, getting back to the tour. I tell you what, it’s been a while since I’ve been out there and I never received a tour of the entire facility and I was thoroughly impressed. It is a wonderful facility.

Garrett Goldman:

Well, that’s good. That was the point of the tour, so.

Chris Higgins:

That’s what you try and do. Well, I mean, it’s hard not to. I think it’s hard not to impress people because of just everything that’s going on. I mean, how advanced the equipment is, all of the science that’s behind it. You commented before we started that some people might think that it’s just a big filter that everything goes through. It’s filtered out and then, okay, this is somewhat clean. Here we go. We’ll put it over here or whatever. But wow. It is quite the process.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, it is a process. And to me, it’s amazing because it’s all done with bacteria, live organisms that actually treat the water and make it usable again so that we can push it back up to Green Valley Lake and get it distributed to our reclaimed water customers.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah.

Garrett Goldman:

But yeah, we don’t use any chemicals.

Chris Higgins:

No, no chemicals. And then towards the end of the process, I remember the filters, and then was it UV? UV light?

Garrett Goldman:

UV.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah, the UV light. And that’s really it.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Chris Higgins:

Wow

Garrett Goldman:

That’s it.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. And the other thing that was amazing, and this is something that anyone listening, anyone watching on Facebook or YouTube, anyone listening on the radio, you can schedule a tour with Green Valley Water, can’t you?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. We offer a set tour time, the first Wednesday of every month. But if that doesn’t work for you, get in touch on our website. There’s actually a link to take a tour. Let us know what time and date work for you. Generally, we try to do them on Wednesdays. It’s about the best day of the week for us, but we can accommodate pretty much anytime during the month.

Chris Higgins:

And the website, if you want to learn a little bit more about Green Valley Water, greenvalleywater.org, is a beautiful new website.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, we just did that. I think it went live about a month ago, a month and a half ago, and tried to update it, bring it into the current times, and also a lot more information on the website that explains what we do, why we do it, and how we serve the community.

Chris Higgins:

And that was something, just a total rebranding with the name change, Green Valley Water, the new logo, the website, social media pages. The vehicles look really nice around town.

Garrett Goldman:

They are definitely distinctive. You can tell when they’re driving down the road.

Chris Higgins:

They are. And then when we did the tour, all of the different employees that we met also with all of the shirts, hats. You guys, it really looks good out there.

Garrett Goldman:

Good. Thank you. Yeah, we thought it was time to not be that obscure agency at the end of the golf course that nobody knows what you do.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah, what do they do? It was very impressive. And maybe you can share a little bit about the importance of the GIS system, and that’s a geographic information system?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, that’s what it is.

Chris Higgins:

And it is something within your system.

Garrett Goldman:

Right. So not only do we have the treatment plant, which he can walk in, we can give you a tour of about. Outside of the treatment plant, we actually have to get the sewage from the house or the business to the treatment plant. And we have just over 3,300 manholes in the system. There is 129 miles of gravity sewer line, 24, almost 25 miles of low-pressure sewer lines, 14 lift stations, 10 miles of sewer force means out there. So there’s a lot of stuff that is in the ground outside of our facility that you don’t see, that we actually have to operate and maintain. And the GIS system, I like to explain it as just mapping on steroids.

Garrett Goldman:

We’re actually physically locating each one of our facilities out there. We can store information with them, inspection information, repair information, and it gives us the ability to actually manage the asset for our customers. So that it’s here, not just for today or tomorrow, but for generations to come.

Chris Higgins:

It was, again, very impressive to see. And the lady who runs that system-

Garrett Goldman:

Teresa Aguirre.

Chris Higgins:

Teresa, and yeah, it’s her explaining and just showing the level of detail that that system provides. And I remember another great point was now everyone, every employee out there, every technician, has access to that information versus how it was maybe done in the past where it’s just written down or kept in the head. And then everyone doesn’t know you have that information.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. So all of our field crews, each person has a mobile device that they can access. So at their fingertips, they can get the information on any of our facilities that are out there. And yeah, as you said before, we went to the GIS system, which is coming up on three years now, when we started to implement it. We had paper maps and at best, they were cartoons. So we kind of knew what we had, but we didn’t really know what we had, and now we have it defined. We can go to any point in the system and we know exactly what’s there, where it’s located down to the inch, and I’ll walk out to our facilities and maintain them.

Chris Higgins:

Well, that is great. Again, talking with Garrett Goldman from Green Valley Water, and again, Green Valley Water, I would encourage parents that if they’re looking for something to do with their children, a tour of the Green Valley Water facility. And you said the questions, especially from kids, tend to be some real good ones.

Garrett Goldman:

I love hearing the questions that come out of the kids. They’re always something that you would never expect, but they’re always generally on target. They’re asking good questions. So it’s a lot of fun to get kids’ tours.

Chris Higgins:

And, and really, Randy and I can be quite childlike sometimes, so we both did good on the tour.

Garrett Goldman:

You did.

Chris Higgins:

And so I think you can now safely take your children out there and they’ll be really, I think, interested in what is happening and just everything they see out there. So it’s something that, again, encourage parents doing that. Again, check out the new website, greenvalleywater.org, and something that I want to mention. We’re reading, and we have this information going out over to the station, but you are hiring right now, aren’t you?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes we are. We have three positions open right now and they’re a collection system maintenance operator, a collection system maintenance technician, and then a water reclamation facility or a treatment plants, another way to say that, operator one.

Chris Higgins:

And if you want more information on this positions or to apply, again, you can go to greenvalleywater.org/jobs. And that is something, I know we’ve talked about this and I’m very impressed with. You have people that have been at Green Valley Water for a very, very long time. You don’t really have… Your turnover is through retirement.

Garrett Goldman:

Generally, it is through retirement. Either we had a new position or somebody retires.

Chris Higgins:

And that really says a lot about the organization. So kudos to you guys.

Garrett Goldman:

Well, thank you.

Chris Higgins:

It’s real good. So again, if you are looking for, could it be a new career as well, if somebody looking at?

Garrett Goldman:

It’s a great career. Well, first of all, you have to be certified. You have to get a certification through the Department of Environmental Quality. There’s not many of those in the state that actually have that certification. And once you have it, you can go anywhere in the country because it’s a national certification on them. The other thing is, is we teach on the job. So the three positions we have open right now are entry-level positions. We will teach you the job, and the only requirement is as a high school diploma or a GED, and be able to maintain a CDL driver’s license. Beyond that, a lot of career advancement opportunities. I’ve got one gentleman that’s been with us for 37 years, another one for 36 years, and then another one for over 30, and the one over 30 came to us straight out of high school, so.

Chris Higgins:

Wow. Yeah. Hey, that’s really good to see. Times have really changed to where you really don’t see that type of longevity in almost any industry.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, no, it’s almost unheard of today.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah, it really is. Going back to the tours. While you were talking, I just thought, approximately how long does the average tour take, or?

Garrett Goldman:

Depending on how much detail you want us to go into, generally an hour and a half to two hours. And we start in the office and explain the system there, and then we actually go out into the treatment plant and show how it works in the field.

Chris Higgins:

And I can assure everyone listening or watching on our Facebook page that if you think, “Oh my gosh, I couldn’t do it. I know the smell. It’s going to be just too much. The smell will be too much. I can’t do it.” There is only one place, well, in your facility or on your grounds there where there is a smell and that’s right where the sewage comes into the facility, isn’t it?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. We call that the head works.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. Okay.

Garrett Goldman:

And it’s where we take out the stuff that shouldn’t be in this sewage flow, such as wipes, those types of things, but anywhere else in a wastewater treatment plant, if you have a smell, something’s wrong. [inaudible 00:12:16].

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. And I know I got kind of close to that bin or whatever. So I thought “How bad is… Is it just here?” But it is very, very isolated, just to that one area, and then as you move away and on the rest of the tour, there’s no smell at all.

Garrett Goldman:

And we generally don’t spend a whole lot of time in that area.

Chris Higgins:

I’m sure he did.

Garrett Goldman:

Sent him back a little bit, explain it, and then we move on.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. I’m sure you probably get some kids though that get close to it.

Garrett Goldman:

Oh yeah. They are very interested.

Chris Higgins:

Inquisitive kids and they’re like, “Oh, wait. Oh boy.” But yeah, the rest of the tour, again, you do not have to worry about any smell at all. So it is good. And also what was very impressive during the tour of the tanks, the tanks, where the, and if you could explain a little bit the bugs, they do their job and what are they just basically doing?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, it’s all bacteria. So it’s all the way from single cell bacteria to multi-celled organisms, which is still considered a bacteria. And they each have a specific job. So in our treatment trains, we have five specific tanks in the train and each one is for a purpose. The first one is to help us with phosphorus removal. The second one is to help with nitrogen or ammonia removal. The third one is where it eats all of the food. That’s what we call it coming in, into the flow. And then the last two tanks are just polishing tanks at that point, make sure that everything’s clean and the biomass is ready to go over and rest for a while.

Chris Higgins:

And another part of the tour that was very, very interesting, the lab.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Chris Higgins:

Where probably a lot of people wouldn’t realize that you have a very advanced lab in your facility.

Garrett Goldman:

Our lab is licensed by the Department of Health Services and we’ll perform anywhere between 12 and 1400 tests a month in that lab. Some of them are for compliance reporting, which we have to report to ADQ on a monthly basis. And other ones are just to help us to be able to monitor what’s happening out in the system so that we can make adjustments as needed.

Chris Higgins:

Again, talking with Garrett Goldman from Green Valley Water, and again, the facility, formerly sanitary district, out there on Doll Baby Ranch Road, past the golf course, and now Green Valley Water. And again, really encouraging people, especially parents with children and age group. What would you say ages? Probably school age?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. I generally like the tours to be kids that are 10 or 11 years old or older than that. It’s just it’s easier to maintain them out there, but really, almost any age group. But we have college tours that come through Eastern Arizona College, some of the biology classes. Biology’s very key to what we do. We really like to call us bacteria ranchers.

Chris Higgins:

That’s better than some other terms I’ve heard years ago.

Garrett Goldman:

Oh yeah. They’re out there.

Chris Higgins:

Bacteria ranchers.

Garrett Goldman:

We carry about 50,000 pounds of bacteria in a given day and within the treatment plant.

Chris Higgins:

Yes. And it was interesting, and you were telling Randy and I, how vital, I mean, the bacteria is, what it’s doing the majority, the vast majority of the work.

Garrett Goldman:

It’s doing all of the work.

Chris Higgins:

All of the work.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Chris Higgins:

So if your bacteria, if something were to happen, oh my goodness. So you really, and it’s interesting, I guess, to look at it that way, how you take care of that bacteria. You really have to yeah, take care of it.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s just like ranching. You have to maintain an appropriate environment for the type of bacteria that you want. Things that could come down the pipe to us could affect it, and do. If you go to our website and under the education tab, it talks about what not to flush, and there’s a whole list of things that should not make its way into the sewer. I’d courage people to go and take a look at that.

Chris Higgins:

Well, I know off of, because I believe recently you launched your Facebook page and you also have an Instagram page as well. But I remember the image and that really stuck with me on the Facebook page, the three Ps, three Ps, the poo, pee, and paper, toilet paper, that is, just toilet paper. So it’s good. And you can maybe laugh. It’s like, ha ha, but it’s great for teaching children because probably there are children in so many instances. Well, I can think of one personally, myself, where one of our children, I forget what toy it was, but right down the toilet.

Garrett Goldman:

We find all sorts of stuff. We have a collection of toys that we have.

Chris Higgins:

Some of them, well, I hope I wouldn’t recognize any, but there’s a possibility.

Garrett Goldman:

Come on down to the lost and found.

Chris Higgins:

No, that’s okay. You can keep it, Garrett. It’s yours now. So that is great for educational purposes, for kids to see that and for them to know what is acceptable, what’s not. Also maybe to see the damage it could do or if not in the home plumbing and it’s just not good for the treatment facility as well.

Chris Higgins:

That’s great. Again, if you want to sign up for a tour, there are regularly scheduled tours on the first Wednesday of each month from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. And can people sign up for the tours on the website?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes. We actually recommend that you go through the website. That way, we make sure that we get all the information, correct. But if that doesn’t work for you, give us a call. We’ll accommodate it.

Chris Higgins:

No, that sounds good. Question. All the rain. I remember you talking about this briefly on the tour, the impact the rain has on your system and probably heavy rains like we just had as well. So what are some of the impact that has?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, at the treatment plant itself, the rain, it increases our flows. So that changes the dynamics completely through the treatment plant. We have to make adjustments. Out in the collection system, it also takes capacity away from the collection systems. So we are actively, right now, rehabilitating the collection system. Through the GIS system, we actually have a closed circuit TV camera that we can put down the lines for inspecting every line in town. You might’ve seen our TV van out there, almost looks like he Ghostbusters van, but that’s what those crews are doing. And then we take that TV footage and we review it, and we find areas that need to be repaired. Generally, there are cracks in pipes, roots, or a big one that goes in, to keep the storm flows out of the sewer system.

Chris Higgins:

So they aren’t looking for ectoplasm, right?

Garrett Goldman:

No, no. We’ll leave that to the professionals.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. The Ghostbusters. That’s too funny. All these images popped into my mind there. Now, so again, greenvalleywater.org. If you haven’t checked out the new website for Green Valley Water, you really need to give it a visit, see all the information they have on there. Another thing that was added that I think is great is all of the employees, everyone that works out there.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, there’s a picture. If you see our crews out and about, you can find out a little bit about them on the website, at least a picture of them and at least you know who they are and that they do work for us. We are very proud of our staff. They do a great job. You think that we have on the books right now, it’s about $65 million worth of assets, and we maintain that with 22 employees.

Chris Higgins:

22 people.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Chris Higgins:

Wow. It’s really good. Again, it’s a great facility. I highly encourage people to take a tour, even. I mean, you know, I mentioned children and like a field trip, but if you’re just curious about the water treatment facility and Green Valley Water, want to kind of see what they do, how they do it, learn a little bit more, again, I really would recommend the tour.

Garrett Goldman:

Well, we’d be happy to have you out there and encourage you to come.

Chris Higgins:

There we go. Well, Garrett, thank you so much for coming in. And again, they are hiring at Green Valley Water. So you can go to their website, greenvalleywater.org, and it’s /jobs. And you can see the positions that they’re hiring for. We also have this posted on the KRIM Facebook page. So if you are looking for, if you have experience in that field or looking for a new career, again, it’s a wonderful career and job opportunity, I think, for a few people, so.

Chris Higgins:

All right. Well, thank you everyone for watching on Facebook. Thank you for tuning into KRIM, to the Community Spotlight Program, and also a big thank you to Desert Financial for sponsoring the KRIM community spotlight program. Let’s get back to the music right here on KRIM with Conquistador, Procol Harum, on your station that rocks the Rim, KRIM. All right.

Garrett Goldman:

We’re good?

Chris Higgins:

There we go. Yeah.

Garrett Goldman:

Appreciate it.

Chris Higgins:

Covered all the items there and yeah, yeah, yeah. And hopefully get some, have people signed up for tours? Are you getting a-

Garrett Goldman:

We’re getting a few more.

Chris Higgins:

Good.

Garrett Goldman:

Since we’ve been on the radio, the new website, than the year previous.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. No, the website is great. I mean, everything, the logo, the website, social media, I mean, it’s going to make a difference.

Garrett Goldman:

It will.

Chris Higgins:

Yeah. You’ll see. And I think it’s good because I know also the main objective, because someone, I mentioned it to someone and they said, “Why are they marketing? I mean, who else is someone going to use? They can’t choose anyone else.” But it’s a case of no, no, they’re doing that because they are educating. It’s for educational purposes. It’s to let the community know, “Hey, this is what we do. This is how we do it. Come on out and see.” And so I think it’s really good. It’s good. And it will be better for the organization down the road when people are informed.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Chris Higgins:

Looks good. End all right.