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Charlie Seraphin:

Welcome to The Forum, your way to keep up with state and community leaders, experts, and local business leaders. This is your chance to hear from and talk to people that affect your life right here in Rim Country. You can express your opinions by calling 474-2427, and remember, the comments and opinions of guests and callers are not necessarily the opinions of KMOG. Welcome to Rim Country Forum.

Charlie Seraphin:

Good morning, happy Monday to you, hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to a fantastic week. Five minutes after 9:00, I’m Charlie Seraphin, and this is The Forum. We are sponsored today by Sunshine Cleaning and Restoration, the Owens Law Firm, Realty Executives Arizona Territory, Pinnacle Propane, Banner Health Pace and Medical Center, and the Dana Law Group.

I always tell you when we start out, this is really going to be a great show. You’re going to really learn a lot. Well, you are going to learn a lot, but I’m going to tell you, some people might think of it as a kind of a crappy show. I’m just going to say that because we have Green Valley Water with us in the studio this morning, and we’re going to talk about the name change and we’re going to talk about our environment and what these folks do. So we’re real pleased to have with us, Garrett Goldman, who is a District Manager for Green Valley Water, and Deniese Morgan, who’s the Administrative Service Manager for Green Valley Water. I can say it because I can read it right on your shirts there. That’s a nice logo. Good morning, welcome.

Deniese Morgan:

Thank you.

Garrett Goldman:

Good morning.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. I guess, did I throw you off a little bit with the crappy thing? Come on.

Garrett Goldman:

Nothing we’re not used to.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, I know. That’s what I was saying earlier when we were talking in the lobby. I said, “Man, you probably hear a lot of jokes about things, and hopefully you’ll think of one or two later on that you can actually share with us.”

So, ladies first, we’re going to start with you, Deniese, is this typically question that I always ask everybody. Where were you born?

Deniese Morgan:

I was born in San Diego, California.

Charlie Seraphin:

In San Diego, California?

Deniese Morgan:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

How did you get from San Diego to Payson?

Deniese Morgan:

My parents moved here in ’92.

Charlie Seraphin:

In ’92, and you were one?

Deniese Morgan:

Close.

Charlie Seraphin:

Close?

Deniese Morgan:

I was 21.

Charlie Seraphin:

Oh, 21, well it had a one in it, didn’t it? Yeah.

Deniese Morgan:

Close.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, so if you moved here as an adult from San Diego, San Diego’s considered one of the most beautiful places in the world to live. The climate is perfect, right?

Deniese Morgan:

It is.

Charlie Seraphin:

Pretty much. Do you miss it? Do you miss the ocean?

Deniese Morgan:

I do miss the ocean, I was born and raised on the ocean. I do not miss the traffic and the congestion over there.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, how about the politics? We’re not going to get into it personally, but you don’t miss the politics either, do you?

Deniese Morgan:

No, it can stay there.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, okay, that’s what we thought. So your parents moved here when you were 21, but you had an option, you could either come to Payson or you could’ve stayed behind, yeah?

Deniese Morgan:

Correct, I could’ve. Cost of living, cost of living over there is not very good.

Charlie Seraphin:

No, it’s very, very expensive.

Deniese Morgan:

Very expensive to live, correct.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, and getting more expensive all the time.

Deniese Morgan:

It is.

Charlie Seraphin:

Go figure, right? It’s hard to figure that out. Okay, Garrett, how about you? Where were you born?

Garrett Goldman:

I was born in Mesa.

Charlie Seraphin:

In Mesa? Well, that wasn’t that far away, was it?

Garrett Goldman:

Not too far away, I didn’t venture very far out, so.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay, so tell us about when you were a little boy, did you dream about running a sewage treatment facility?

Garrett Goldman:

No, that was the farthest thing from my mind, no.

Charlie Seraphin:

Tell us a little bit about the journey. How did you become a District Manager for a sanitation district?

Garrett Goldman:

Okay, well my family moved up here in ’84, I was a sophomore in high school. So I finished high school here, went down to ASU and got my degree, and actually worked at an airplane factory for about two years. Much like Deniese, the congestion and the traffic and I actually got an opportunity to come back to Payson and work for a civil engineering firm. So I jumped on that and I think that was in ’95. In ’96, I started getting introduced to what was the Northern Gila County Sanitary District as a consulting engineer. I worked the next 22 years as an engineer for them on a consultant basis.

Then in 2017, the previous General Manager or District Manager decided that he was going to retire. I put my hat in the ring and got the job. So it was just a long progression of just being there working with them and understanding what they do. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Charlie Seraphin:

Compared to other sanitation districts, sewage districts around the state and around the country and everything, what’s unique about Payson? Are there some things that are unique about it?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, Payson is very unique. One of the big things is that we do a biological nutrient removal process, which is we not only treat the waste in the water but we also remove both phosphorous and nitrogen from the water, which allows us then to be able to put our water back for reuse, reclaim water to water fields, golf courses, that kind of stuff. But even more importantly is it allows us to put our water back up to Green Valley Lake and create that amenity for the community.

Charlie Seraphin:

What does phosphorous and nitrogen, what do they do in the water?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, they act as a fertilizer. So if you don’t remove them, then you get algae growth and actually they can be toxic to the environment. So by taking those out, it creates a product or the reclaimed water that is actually usable in multiple different scenarios.

Charlie Seraphin:

What about the hard solid waste materials? What do we do with those?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, those actually, because we are a full biological process, they get eaten by the bacteria that’s in our process. We remove those on a daily basis, the bacteria, which then goes up to the landfill, actually not our landfill here in Gila County but down through waste management down to the valley.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay, and do we have some idea of what kind of volume that is, of the solid waste that we take out of here?

Garrett Goldman:

We’ll take about seven to eight tons a day out of the plant. So a significant amount. We actually carry about 50,000 pounds of biological material or bacteria in the plant itself.

Charlie Seraphin:

Seven to eight tons a day.

Garrett Goldman:

A day.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay, we have, what? 15,000, 16,000 people? That’s a lot.

Garrett Goldman:

Do the math.

Charlie Seraphin:

That’s a lot, that’s a lot, folks. Hey, folks, you need to start paying attention to what you’re consuming there, what you’re eating. That’s a lot of processed waste, isn’t it?

Garrett Goldman:

It is.

Charlie Seraphin:

It is, wow. I’m going to have to do the math on that later and see. There’s something coming there. So the primary purpose of you coming on today was to get people familiar with the new name, Green Valley Water?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Why? Why do we have Green Valley Water? Why do we call it … Where is Green Valley? That was the first question.

Garrett Goldman:

Well, this whole process, we’ve been known since 1983 as Northern Gila County Sanitary District, and previous to that from 1965 until ’83, it was the Payson Sanitary District. We started out this process, we needed a new logo, our logo’s outdated, you couldn’t read what was going on. It just didn’t make a lot of sense.

Charlie Seraphin:

A lot of words there.

Garrett Goldman:

A lot of words, and as we got into it, it was exactly that, it’s a lot of words. We realized that the logo wasn’t going to do it, so we needed to do something with the name also. We wanted something that had historical, geographical reference to us. Green Valley is actually what the name of Payson before it became Payson. So it just made sense to change to Green Valley. That did a couple of things for us. It got Gila County out of our name. We are not associated with Gila County. In the phone calls we would take several a week of people wanting county services.

Then the other thing is sanitary in the name. Well, if you’re not from this area, sanitary generally means trash pickup. So again, we would get several phone calls a week of people wanting us to either set up trash service for them or come get their trash can because we missed their service that week.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, Deniese, did you ever field any of those calls?

Deniese Morgan:

We do. We field them weekly. The front office before they can even answer, “Thank you for calling Sanitary District,” it’s, “Where can I drop off my plans? You’ve missed my trash.” And trying to explain everything, that we’re not the trash service, we’re not the county, it gets pretty overwhelming sometimes.

Charlie Seraphin:

What is the entity? What is the … Is it independent company? Is it owned and operated by the municipality, by the town, or?

Garrett Goldman:

No, we are separate from the town. We are a governmental entity authorized under Title 48 of the Arizona Revised Statutes as a special taxing district. A sanitary district is one of many, many that are underneath that title. We are governed by a five member elected board that gets elected every two years. It staggers through the two year cycle during the general election.

Charlie Seraphin:

Do the people who serve on the board, are they all local residents of the district?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, they are. One of the requirements, in fact, the only requirement other than being over 18, is that you have to be a qualified elector of the district or within the district boundaries, which means you have to live within the district boundaries.

Charlie Seraphin:

What are the district boundaries? Are they different than the boundaries for the town?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, they are. Predominantly it is the town boundaries but there’s islands throughout the town that are not part of our boundaries. But we also serve outside of the town boundaries, the Mesa Del Caballo subdivision. So, we have the ability to reach out beyond the town boundaries into the county to serve different subdivisions or communities if they so choose.

Charlie Seraphin:

Those little islands that exist within the town, are those septic tanks? People on septic tanks?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, it’s either undeveloped land or they’re served currently by septic tanks. Generally, those are large lots, an acre or larger lots.

Charlie Seraphin:

Have septic tanks, are they still allowed if somebody is buying … they buy a couple of acres, if they can find it somewhere in town, could they run off a septic tank instead of hooking up to sewer?

Garrett Goldman:

If they are not within our boundaries, yes they can, but the rules from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality are very strict in order to put a septic tank on your property and it’s difficult. The way that the ground is here and to get the separation from your hard rock underneath and differences are separation from wells and that kind of stuff. So generally, you end up with an alternative system, and those get quite costly.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, so an old fashioned septic tank, not likely you’re going to be able to get permitted to be able to put one of those.

Garrett Goldman:

There’s far and few between now, yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, and will eventually the people who are septic as the … Those things deteriorate over time, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Charlie Seraphin:

They wear down, they’re not as effective anymore. Does that pose a threat to the clean water of our area? It’s one of the things that we’re proudest of is that we have a great … the Payson aquifer is awesome and we’re told we have a two year supply even if we didn’t have CC Craig in on the program, so.

Garrett Goldman:

They can pose a threat, especially if they’re in a high density area, but there’s not too many of those left in town. The last one that we annexed into the district boundaries was the Airline Loop Corridor, just to the east of the airport roundabout there. They were almost forced into coming into the district and installing a sewer system to serve that area, just because there was such a high density of septic tanks there. They were failing. There was not room to be able to do anything else with them. So really, your lots at that point became unusable, just because of the sewage disposal process.

Charlie Seraphin:

What about grinders? I had never lived in a place that had grinders before. In our neighborhood everybody has one. I would assume that that probably helps the treatment process a little bit.

Garrett Goldman:

It actually has a … well, unintended benefit or consequence to the treatment process. Part of removing phosphorous is that you have to have volatile fatty acids in your flow when it comes in. You only get that when you have septic sewage. The grinder pumps actually create that, which then allow us to better remove the phosphorous out the treatment plant.

Charlie Seraphin:

Oh, so it’s more of a chemical thing than a physical thing?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, it’s not an added chemical. It’s just a natural process within the sewage itself that it allows the VFAs or volatile fatty acids to develop.

Charlie Seraphin:

474-2427 is our number. Good morning, welcome to The Forum, who’s on the line?

David (Caller):

Good morning, it’s David. How are you?

Charlie Seraphin:

Hi, David, excellent.

David (Caller):

I’m calling to ask, composting toilets, if you don’t send the poop, do you still need to have a sewage system?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, if you’re within the district boundaries, you would be required to connect to the public sewer system on that. Whether you put a composting toilet in your house or not, that would be your choice, but you would still, the rest of the flows from your house, the bathtubs, dishwashers, all the other fixtures would end up coming to us at that point. It is just as important that those flows are treated as well as what goes down the toilet.

David (Caller):

But isn’t the water you just mentioned considered just dirt water and people put it in their yard?

Garrett Goldman:

It is gray water, and there are rules with ADQ that allow you to use that in your yards. And you can do that.

David (Caller):

Okay, so it wouldn’t make a difference?

Garrett Goldman:

No.

David (Caller):

Okay, thank you very much.

Charlie Seraphin:

Thank you. That was an excellent question, actually. So there are people, I don’t know if there are any people in Payson, but I know in other parts of the country there are people who separate and go through that process. They have their own waste treatment, waste water treatment, and they recycle the water from the shower, bathtub or whatever, and use that for irrigation. Then they would go ahead and use the solid waste and do the composting that he’s talking about, the composting toilet. But if you live within the district, you’re going to have to be a member of the plant and you’re going to get the same monthly bill that everybody else gets.

Garrett Goldman:

That is correct.

Charlie Seraphin:

We can talk about rates a little later, but here’s another question. Good morning, welcome to The Forum. Who’s on the line?

Allen (Caller):

Yeah, this is Allen. Hey, I got a question for the gentleman there. Up above the airport on White House Drive, Graph and all that, why is it that sewer was never brought the rest of the way around there? We are all on septic up there, where the rest of that little subdivision up there all is on sewer. We would love to go to the sewer. I’ve talked to several of the people up there and they’re like, “Yeah, we’d love to get away from our septic systems.”

Garrett Goldman:

So that area up there, it’s an interesting area. When it was first developed, the entire subdivision … and if you’re on Graph, you’re on the north side of it there, was originally in the sanitary district boundaries. Back in the, I believe it was the early ’80s, there was a petition of those homeowners to actually de-annex from the sanitary district. And the only way that that works is there had to be a majority of the homeowners came together and they came to the board and requested to be out of it because of the size of the lots that are there.

So there is infrastructure that’s in the area there, but there would have to be additions to the infrastructure to be able to serve those areas that you’re talking about. Now, it is not something that’s not impossible to do. It would just have to be a petition by the homeowners there and the additional infrastructure would have to be put in as a part of that for the district to be able to serve you.

Allen (Caller):

Right, and I had talked to one gentleman several years back and he said one of the problems they had, they wanted to come the rest of the way down White House, well, there’s a very large ditch right there with giant culverts in it. He said that was one of the problems, trying to figure out how to get around the culverts and everything because the way the sewer runs down the middle of the street. So they turned it and they never came down the rest of the way, they claimed. So, I don’t know. All right, thank you very much.

Garrett Goldman:

You’re welcome.

Charlie Seraphin:

That’s a really interesting thing. So if the majority of the homeowners in that district got together and voted to be re-annexed into the district, they could do that. But a part of the problem would be, they would have to pay as the homeowners, they would have to pay the additional infrastructure improvement fees.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, that would be. And generally that would be done by forming an improvement district. And just very similar to what we did on the Airline Loop Corridor to where the district would help to sponsor the bonds because we do have a high bond rating, and go out and spread that out over 10 to 15 years. But the homeowners in that specific area would be responsible for that.

Charlie Seraphin:

So do you have any … Well not knowing what the improvements were, but are we talking about tens of thousands, millions of dollars, how much would it cost for it to re-annex an area that needed capital improvement?

Garrett Goldman:

It all depends on the size of the area and how far it has to be brought in. The Airline Loop one was I believe about $600,000?

Deniese Morgan:

$680,000.

Garrett Goldman:

$680,000 to do that area. But you divide that up over a hundred houses and then all of a sudden becomes a reasonable cost.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, over 15 years, or whatever is.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, that one was a 10-year bond.

Deniese Morgan:

10-year bond.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Are there other bonds like that that you if you have a high rating that means that you have been active in the bond market, yeah, and you can put some bonds out and paid them off and way to go?

Garrett Goldman:

Over the history of the district there have been bonds especially early in the district history that were taken out. As of recently we are debt-free. We do not need to do bonds. We try to do a pay-as-you-go. If we have to go out to bonding, that just means that our customers are going to have to pay more for the infrastructure that’s put in. So we really strive to remain debt free. But with that, that also means that we have a very good rating.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, excellent. Good morning. Welcome to the Forum. Who’s on the line?

Speaker 7:

Hello.

Charlie Seraphin:

Hi. Who is this?

Speaker 7:

Hi. I’m calling KMOG. I’m wondering if I can get some help finding my dog, but maybe I called the wrong number.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. If you call the business number. But I’m going to put you on hold for a second and see if somebody will pick up in the other room and help you out, okay?

Thank you. All right. Well, there you go. At the Green Valley Water, do you do lost and found dogs?

Garrett Goldman:

Occasionally we will …

Deniese Morgan:

We actually did.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Deniese Morgan:

What? About two weeks ago.

Garrett Goldman:

It was a little longer than that, but yeah, we had a dog that had been abandoned out on Doll Baby Ranch Road and we assisted in helping I guess capture the dog so that it ultimately went to the Humane Society, but yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

See, look at that.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Charlie Seraphin:

Nice job. And you thought that they were just doing the poop thing. It’s a lot more than that. It really is. I should apologize because I said this would be crappy. This is a great program. I’ve already learned about a half a dozen things and I’m hoping that I’m going to learn a lot more.

Thanks for being with us this morning. We’ll have more. We’re visiting with Garrett Goldman and Deniese Morgan from Green Valley Water which had another name but we’re going to forget about that and we’re just going to go forward with Green Valley Water from hereon out. It’s 26 minutes after 9 o’clock. We’ll have more after this.

Happy Monday to you. It’s a beautiful day out here in Rim Country. Oh my gosh. And we had a little chilly weather over the weekend and some wind. Great rodeo here in town, had a good time there. And as I mentioned to Garrett and Deniese before we went off the air, I think the livestock definitely won the rodeo. It was about 80 to 3 I think. It was real close. The Cowboys had a rough time, but the Animals, they did their thing and they were awesome. It was a lot of fun.

So we’re dealing with the sanitary district issues this morning and questions. And we’ve already learned a lot about. People we mention this too. People don’t think about it. They run the faucet or they flush the toilet or whatever and then it’s gone, and after that it’s not top of mind. But for you it’s top of mind every day because that’s what you do and that’s what you deal with.

What are some of the biggest challenges that we have here? Do we have chemical disposal that you find because you’re testing the materials as well as treating them, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Our biggest challenge that we have really is disposable wipes being put down the toilet. And even though they say they’re flushable, that does not mean they should go down the toilet, because normal toilet paper, once it’s flushed, it kind of degrades and it becomes part of the flow. The wipes stay together, and they end up clogging up pumps, they clog lines, they do affect the treatment process. And we have to remove all that before it goes into the treatment process. And one of the things that we kind of joke about is the three things that go down the toilet, the three Ps, it’s pee, poop, and paper, and not disposable wipes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. Hopefully everybody listening right now is paying attention to that because it ultimately adds cost to the process, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, it does.

Charlie Seraphin:

And it’s going to come back. You’re going to end up paying for it the more pumps that break down and the more filters that have to be removed and whatnot. I could see they could really gum up the works on that.

Garrett Goldman:

That it does.

Charlie Seraphin:

Are there other materials like that that you see? What about chewing gum or anything else that would have a negative effect on the process?

Garrett Goldman:

The quantity of that kind of stuff that makes it down is generally so small that we don’t really see that. But yeah, like I said, if it’s not the three Ps, it really shouldn’t be going down the drain. We find all sorts of weird stuff coming into the headwords. We have toys that make it down the toilet. We have actually a collection of them out there of things that we found.

Charlie Seraphin:

Do kids get to play with them once in a while?

Garrett Goldman:

No, they’re kind of on the shelf. When we do tours, we show that off.

Charlie Seraphin:

What kind of toys? How big a toy-

Garrett Goldman:

Like a little-

Deniese Morgan:

Hot wheels cars.

Garrett Goldman:

Hot wheels cars generally.

Charlie Seraphin:

Hot wheels, yeah. Are the wheels still on?

Garrett Goldman:

Sometimes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Sometimes.

Garrett Goldman:

It’s amazingly in good condition when they get there.

Charlie Seraphin:

Well, so to speak.

Garrett Goldman:

Well-washed.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. What else? What other kinds of things have you found?

Deniese Morgan:

Clothing. We find clothing.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

What kind of clothing?

Garrett Goldman:

One time we found a pair of pink pants that came from the jail. Apparently somebody wanted out of their cell bad enough that they flushed those down and we caught that, that at the headwords. We have found money down there and …

Charlie Seraphin:

How much? How much money?

Garrett Goldman:

I believe we found at least one $100 bill.

Charlie Seraphin:

Really?

Garrett Goldman:

That’s come through, yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Well, that’s crappy. Somebody …

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Charlie Seraphin:

Somebody threw a hundred dollar bill down the toilet.

Deniese Morgan:

Jewelry. Jewelry.

Garrett Goldman:

Jewelry. Yeah. One of the amazing stories is there was a lady that accidentally flushed her wedding ring. And she called just in a panic down there. We figured out about the timing that should reach us, and one of our personnel went out there and actually picked through everything and found her wedding ring.

Charlie Seraphin:

Wow.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, pretty amazing.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. Now, let’s go back to that process. How do you figure out from a street location how long it’s going to take to get to the plant, to the treatment plant?

Garrett Goldman:

We have mapping of our entire system, now that is all digital in our geographical information system, so we can get the length of pipe from that connection down to the plant, and then just average it out about two feet per second is what the flow will go or the velocity of it. So we just did the math and got us in the ballpark and were able to find the ring.

Charlie Seraphin:

Wow. I wonder if that lady, if you’re listening this morning, if you’re the one who got your wedding ring back from the toilet, I would love to hear from you. What a great story. I think that would be a headline feature story. I’m sorry. That’s one I hadn’t heard before.

I know in some bigger cities where the sanitation workers go underground often and are cleaning out things, that was a part of the job was, whatever it was a paid union scale, but I know they all made extra money because they would sift through and find a lot of things. There’s a lot of jewelry that goes down toilets and down the sink too that could end up in the thing. So that prompts the next question, do you have cameras in the system?

Garrett Goldman:

We do not have permanent cameras in the system. We have a van mounted camera that we use for inspection of our system. We’re trying on an every three to five year basis to look at every line within our boundaries. And you’ll see our crews out there. We put the camera down. We do a video inspection. It’s recorded. They at that point will mark any deficiencies that they find in the lines, but then we can come back to the office and also look at those videos. And that’s how we are planning our maintenance program right now.

Charlie Seraphin:

When we had the town water department and he brought with him a valve and it was nasty. I mean, it was so corroded, and they took it back out and put it in the truck. How how is our system in terms of the overall maintenance?

Garrett Goldman:

Our system’s pretty good. You figure that the first lines were put in in the early 1970s, so we’re at 50 years of lines in there. We really don’t have major problems. There’s wear and tear that happen, but they’re usually just spot repairs that we have to go out and do, not major replacement projects.

Charlie Seraphin:

What is the material of the primary piping system for the sanitary district?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, it really depends on when it was put in. The collection system that was put in in the early ’70s is vitrified clay, so it’s actually clay pipe. And then there’s been several renditions through the years. As new technologies have come out, we have settled pretty much on PVC at this point.

Charlie Seraphin:

As clay pipe, it does get brittle as it ages, yes?

Garrett Goldman:

It’s brittle when it starts. It’s a very good pipe if it’s laid right, but it can’t be laid on any rocks. The rocks in the backfill, that’s generally what gets it, is they’ll rest up against the pipe and then cause a break, or if the joints aren’t tight, then you’ll get roots and they always go for water. And once they find their way in, then they end up breaking the pipe up.

Charlie Seraphin:

So the goal would be to secure the joints as much as they did when they laid them and lay them in sand?

Garrett Goldman:

You would want to lay in like a pea gravel or a fine grated material.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay.

Garrett Goldman:

As you see the gas company out, all of their stuff is laid in a very fine granite, and that’s what we are expecting now on our plans.

Charlie Seraphin:

If you were going to go by percentages, what percentage of the existing system is PVC versus now clay pipe?

Garrett Goldman:

Probably close to 50% is clay pipe and the remainder is PVC.

Charlie Seraphin:

Is there an age limit on the clay pipe?

Garrett Goldman:

No. It will be here for generations to come, as long as it’s maintained well through the time period.

Charlie Seraphin:

And when you do those camera checks and you’re going through, that’s what you’re looking for? You’re looking for roots in the lines, cracks in the line.

Garrett Goldman:

Yep.

Charlie Seraphin:

And it can see all that stuff?

Garrett Goldman:

We can see all of that. It’s like you’re sitting down in the line itself when you’re looking at it on the screen. It’s a video that comes back and, oh, we can sit there and look at it just like we were there.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, that’s really pleasant. I’m just thinking like Saturday night movie with the kids, some popcorn, and sit down with the video of the line.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, it’s pleasant when you have to sit down and go through and identify where you’re going to be working in the next month or two, so.

Charlie Seraphin:

Well, it’s a crappy job, but somebody’s got to do it. Yeah, I got to have to watch the wording here very carefully.

First of all, we have to say this too, Garrett and Deniese, you’re really delightful people and we’re so grateful that you’re doing what you’re doing, because most of us do not as you sort of told your career story Garrett, getting into it through engineering, and there’s a lot of engineering involved in it. It isn’t something … The last time I asked that question, we had a young woman in who is an undertaker here in town, a mortician. And I asked her, “When you were a little girl, did you want to be a mortician?” And she surprised me by saying yes, because she had seen King Tutankhamen’s exhibit when it came through town and she became fascinated with mummies and so she’s always been into preserving the body of the dead, and it’s just a fascination for her and a passion and so like that.

So I was wondering if I were to talk to a sanitation engineer, if I would get a somewhere kind of, “I always wondered what happened. When I was a little boy, I flushed my hot wheels car down the toilet, and I always wondered where it went,” kind of thing. But you didn’t have any of those experiences?

Garrett Goldman:

No, that wasn’t in my growing up, so.

Charlie Seraphin:

That wasn’t in your growing up. It’s 22 minutes before 10 o’clock. We’re visiting with Garrett and Deniese from Green Valley Water, formerly the Sanitation District with the long name, Northern Gila County. And if you have a question or a comment, we welcome them, 474-2427. We have more after this.

It’s a Monday edition of the Rim Country Forum. Thank you so much for being with us this morning, wherever you’re listening. If you’re listening here on KMOG and Payson, welcome aboard. And if you’re listening online, anywhere in the world, some places where they don’t have really good sewage systems or sanitary districts. In Nepal, they have a lot of issues there with their. And we have regular listeners in Nepal. They don’t all speak English, but they just, they love the sound of the show and the theme music, that little tinkling thump. Yeah, they think it’s great over there. We hear from them every once in a while, not regularly but every once in a while.

We’re visiting with Garrett Goldman and Deniese Morgan and they are with the new Green Valley Water which was formerly called the Northern Gila County Sanitary District, a lot of words, and they tried to make it into a logo. And that was tough because the words were splashing all over the place, and you don’t want that when you’re in the sanitation.

Garrett Goldman:

The splashing is bad.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, splashing is bad. Yeah, we know that. Let’s talk a little bit about the finances. You said that you’re bond free right now, you’re debt-free right now, and the district is supporting itself pretty well. How do we compare in terms of our costs with some of the other districts in the state of Arizona or elsewhere in the country?

Garrett Goldman:

Oh. Well, the cost is, I guess back up just a little bit. So we’re an enterprise fund, very similar to what the water department is, which that means that our user fees actually cover the cost to operate and maintain our system. That’s our main source of income right there on that. So when you compare us, we usually compare ourselves to like Fountain Hills. And they’re very close in size, flow, population, all of that with us. Our monthly cost is lower than what Fountain Hill’s cost is. So we’re right in the ballpark with-

Charlie Seraphin:

Considerably lower or a little bit lower?

Garrett Goldman:

A little bit lower, not considerably, but we’re in the ballpark with what other districts are charging.

Charlie Seraphin:

How many employees do you have?

Garrett Goldman:

We have 22 employees right now.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. And has that been pretty stable over time or does the number go up and down?

Garrett Goldman:

It’s fluctuated over time. It’s had a drop from about 2003 down to 2017. We only had 17 employees at that point. We’ve been staffing back up because we’ve been having our renewed focus out in the collection system. So in the collection system itself we have almost 130 miles of gravity sewer line. There’s 25 miles of low pressure sewer line which that’s what the grinder pumps hook up to, 10 miles of force mains because of the terrain and basin, not everything flows gravity to our plant. So we have to have lift stations to lift it up over the hill to where it can flow gravity to us. And there’s 14 of those out there.

Charlie Seraphin:

And are those large collection type things that … How big are they?

Garrett Goldman:

It all depends. We have some very small ones like right by Ace Hardware, you wouldn’t even know it’s there when you drive by it, but there’s a little fence compound that’s like six foot by eight foot. And then we have some very large ones like our Chaparral Pines Lift Station three out at the Chaparral Pines Maintenance Facility. And that one is probably 50 feet by 100 feet long. So that one’s large, but it’s a very regional lift station.

Charlie Seraphin:

Are those … What are they made of? Are they like metal tanks or are they just depressions?

Garrett Goldman:

Generally concrete tanks.

Charlie Seraphin:

Concrete tanks.

Garrett Goldman:

And then they have at least two pumps in each one, some of them more.

Charlie Seraphin:

And that’s because in order to get from where that is, that location is, they have to go uphill?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Basically.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. So the Chaparral Pines Lift Station number three it pumps from right there by pacing concrete and it discharges into our gravity system up behind bashes. So it’s quite a run to get to the discharge point. But that was the closest place with enough capacity that we could actually flow gravity then down to the treatment plant.

Charlie Seraphin:

I never thought of this before but in the sewage business, the whole concept of a straight line being the shortest distance between two points doesn’t really apply because you’ve got to go around all kinds of different elevations and bedrock. We have a lot of the granite that’s here. In some places you can dig and there’s quite a bit of topsoil. In other places not much at all. You’re just right on the rock.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes. It gets challenging putting the gravity sewer system in to be able to follow the contours or the topography, but also streets and lot lines, those type of things. The system is really intricate in how it works.

Charlie Seraphin:

Is there any place in Payson right now that doesn’t have access to a main sewage line? It may not be on their property but does it go by pretty much everything, every property?

Garrett Goldman:

If it’s within the district boundaries, unless it’s the large areas maybe like up by the airport that just came out of trade what, five to 10 years ago that haven’t been developed yet, pretty much any developed area has sewer somewhere close to it.

Charlie Seraphin:

And is the cost of the development of those type of areas up by the airport that just came from the forest service and the trade, is that land, will cost be borne by the district in order to put the sewage in or by the developer?

Garrett Goldman:

It’s borne by the developer as part of their subdivision costs.

Charlie Seraphin:

What else can you do? It’s a separate legal entity in effect, yeah, the district?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, not so much. Different name and not so much what we know as a separate legal entity.

Charlie Seraphin:

But you’re a taxing district?

Garrett Goldman:

We are a taxing district.

Charlie Seraphin:

And so you can tax everybody in the district whether they hook up to the sewer or not?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, yeah.

Charlie Seraphin:

And are the people who are on septic, are they paying something?

Garrett Goldman:

If they are in the district boundaries, we do have a property tax levy that they will be paying as part of that, but if they’re not in the boundaries, no, they are not paying.

Charlie Seraphin:

But we have these islands in town.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. We do.

Charlie Seraphin:

How many of those are there? Do you know?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, they’re getting fewer and fewer, but probably the main one is up behind the college in that Gram Ranch area, large lots, just there’s really hasn’t been an interest I guess over the years to put sewage up in there. It is possible to do it, but until those homeowners come together, it won’t happen.

Charlie Seraphin:

How big are those lots generally in an area like that? Are we talking four or five acres or …

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, I would say one acre minimum, but a lot of them are up to 10 acres.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay, got it. 14 minutes before 10 o’clock. We’re talking all things Green Valley Water this morning and we’re going to talk more about the name change in just a second. We’re visiting with Garrett Goldman who’s the District Manager and Deniese Morgan who is the Administrative Service Manager. And if you have a question or a comment, 474-2427.

It’s a new week. It’s a new day. It’s a new name. But it’s the same old services. Well, no, they’re not old services. Actually the technology involved in Green Valley Water is incredible. There are a lot of moving parts and some of it is mechanical and some of it is biological. And that’s why we need engineers like you Garrett to run this program.

So you have a new website too, yes?

Deniese Morgan:

We do have a new website, greenvalleywater.org.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay, that’ll be a little bit easier to remember do you think? Tell me that what was the old website? Do you remember.

Garrett Goldman:

Ngcsd.org

Charlie Seraphin:

Oh yeah, NGCSD, everybody, that just rolls right off your tongue, doesn’t it? Yeah.

Deniese Morgan:

Not as good as Green Valley Water.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, Green Valley Water.

Deniese Morgan:

.org.

Charlie Seraphin:

.org. What are some of the other … People don’t realize but the recycled, reclaimed water that you use for irrigation, what are some of the other areas that we do? We know about Green Valley Park and the lakes there, but you do some other irrigation as well, yeah?

Deniese Morgan:

We do. Our water goes to the multi-purpose field at Rim Country middle school, the baseball and softball fields at the high school, and Woodland Meadows-

Garrett Goldman:

Football field also.

Deniese Morgan:

Football field as well and the Woodland Meadows little pond.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, our Payson Golf Course.

Charlie Seraphin:

Payson Golf Course.

Garrett Goldman:

Watered with our water. And then also Chaparral Pines and the Rim golf courses both receive our water.

Charlie Seraphin:

And how does that work? That’s a completely separate system, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah.

Charlie Seraphin:

I mean you have one system that’s doing the collection, and then you do the distribution of the treated water.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah. So the water flows from the plant. And we actually have two different discharge permits. One allows us to go down American Gulch which we try not to use. Our aquifer protection permit allows us to go to Green Valley Lakes. So we pump the water, everything we can to Green Valley Lakes. And then we have a booster station at Green Valley Lakes that’s over by the Historical Society. And then that takes it and it distributes it to our reclaimed water customers. And there’s about 10 miles of line out there just for distributing reclaimed water.

Charlie Seraphin:

Somebody told me that the water in Green Valley Lakes is as good or better than the water that we’re getting out of our taps. Is that a figurative kind of thing?

Garrett Goldman:

I think that’s figurative. We do produce class A plus water which is the highest class of reclaimed water that ADQ permits. And it’s only about two steps away from being drinkable water. It would have to have another filtration process and then chlorination to become drinkable, but it is very clean water.

Charlie Seraphin:

And does that water have any effect on the fish that live in the lakes because people are catching the fish and eating the fish and … ?

Garrett Goldman:

The only effect it has on the fish is it allows the fish to be there. So without our water there, Green Valley Lakes wouldn’t exist and you wouldn’t be able to fish there. But the Game and Fish Department, they do testing on the water, to make sure that the parameters are all within their limits before they will stock every time. And yeah, there’s no issues with them.

Charlie Seraphin:

Do they take the actual fish themselves and do an analysis of the fish after the fact?

Garrett Goldman:

I really don’t know that.

Charlie Seraphin:

Well, there we go. Deniese, that’s something you can do in addition to finding lost dogs and reclaiming jewelry that’s been lost down the toilet.

Deniese Morgan:

Just bring some fish back, put in on the microscope-

Charlie Seraphin:

Well, now you’ll have to go fishing though. You’ll have to go over to the lake and spend a couple hours of your work day fishing to catch a fish first, and then bring it back for analysis.

Deniese Morgan:

I would probably struggle with that.

Charlie Seraphin:

You would?

Deniese Morgan:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

You’re not a fisher person?

Deniese Morgan:

Yeah, no.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, no?

Deniese Morgan:

No.

Charlie Seraphin:

Oh. How about you Garrett? Are you a fisherman?

Garrett Goldman:

Not so much lately.

Charlie Seraphin:

Not so much lately.

Garrett Goldman:

No.

Charlie Seraphin:

Not because of the water though?

Garrett Goldman:

No, not because of the water.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. So do you think that people will get the connection between the previous name of the Tunnel Payson and Green Valley Water?

Garrett Goldman:

Maybe, maybe not. We have Green Valley Lakes, Green Valley Park. It’s all kind of in that area, so probably that’s the connection that will be made. But if you start tracing it back, it is a historical name for the area.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah. Well, we did know that, and we think that people will remember it. I hope they will remember.

Deniese Morgan:

I hope so too.

Charlie Seraphin:

It just sounds better, doesn’t it?

Deniese Morgan:

It does. We are in the middle of a public relations campaign to get that information out there. Our website has a lot of great information regarding Green Valley Water and the name change.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, and also what we do, and how we do it. One of the things that we really are going to be promoting through this public relations campaign is our tours. We like to give tours, and really think that it helps people to better understand what we do and why we do it, if they will actually take the time to come down and take the tour.

Charlie Seraphin:

Is the tour inside the building looking at pictures or do you get that-

Garrett Goldman:

No, we take you out on the plant and we show you, it’s a pretty intricate process of there’s seven basic steps from the time the water enters the plant until it leaves, and then we go into detail, as much detail as you want on each of those steps.

Charlie Seraphin:

Let’s kind of walk through them real quickly if you don’t mind.

Garrett Goldman:

Sure.

Charlie Seraphin:

The seven steps.

Garrett Goldman:

Okay. So we start out with a preliminary treatment which we have a bar screen that removes the disposable wipes, toys, that kind of stuff, anything big. And then from there it flows into our grit chamber, so things like coffee grounds, egg shells, by the way those are bad for the sewer system too because they settle, but those heavy materials.

Charlie Seraphin:

So they stay in the lines, do they?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, they stay in the lines.

Charlie Seraphin:

And eventually they will clog up the lines.

Garrett Goldman:

It has the potential to clog the lines.

Charlie Seraphin:

How do you clean the line if you have eggshells and that kind of thing in there?

Garrett Goldman:

We have specialized equipment. It’s basically a big pressure washer that goes in the line, and we run it up with about 2000 psi, just blows everything back, and then we have baskets that catch it.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. Second step, all right. What’s the third step?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, then it goes to our VFA basin which we are not using at this point in time. And that is to promote Volatile Fatty Acids which we talked about earlier. But we have enough of those in our flow right now that our phosphorus removal doesn’t need to have additional ones.

Charlie Seraphin:

So that would be, you said a part of that is because of the grinders.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

What percentage do you have any idea of the district is on grinders? It’s just certain neighborhoods, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, probably 20%.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. But that creates enough of the fatty acids, is that what they’re?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, Volatile Fatty Acids.

Charlie Seraphin:

Volatile Fatty Acids. But if there weren’t enough Volatile Fatty Acids and you’d have to introduce those into the …

Garrett Goldman:

Then we’d have to promote those and actually grow them within the plant in order for the treatment process to work.

Charlie Seraphin:

Do you have different names for the sewage as it goes through the different stages or is it all, what do you call it?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, yeah-

Charlie Seraphin:

Don’t say that word.

Garrett Goldman:

So where we are in it right now is just influent. Once it goes past the Volatile Fatty Acid space and it goes into our activated sludge process, and once it enters that it’s called mixed liquor. So don’t drink it.

Charlie Seraphin:

Activated sludge.

Garrett Goldman:

Yes.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. And that is … Technically can you describe what that is? What does that mean?

Garrett Goldman:

Well, that’s where the bacteria live, and that’s where the treatment actually takes place, is there. There’s five stages to that.

Charlie Seraphin:

How big is that, is the activated sludge if we’re looking at the size of different holding areas or tanks or whatever you call them? Is that the biggest one?

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, that’s the biggest one.

Charlie Seraphin:

That’s the real big one.

Garrett Goldman:

That’s the biggest one.

Charlie Seraphin:

Does has a thing that goes around on the top or-

Garrett Goldman:

No, no, these are rectangular basins and it comes in the top and it just kind of flows down through the basins to the tail end of that. And that’s where all of the organics are taken out of the flow, the phosphorus is taken out, and also the nitrogen is taken out from ammonia.

Charlie Seraphin:

Then we get to the liquor.

Garrett Goldman:

And that’s all mixed liquor in there, but don’t drink it.

Charlie Seraphin:

Why is it called mixed liquor?

Garrett Goldman:

It’s just an industry terminology and it’s mixed liquor suspended solids is the official term for it.

Charlie Seraphin:

Mixed liquor suspended solids. And when you mix liquor, it makes you sick. Everybody knows that, right?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, yes. This will definitely do that.

Charlie Seraphin:

Yeah, okay. So you have that.

Garrett Goldman:

And then from there it flows into our clarifiers. Now those are the round basins that you were referring that have a skimmer on top. And what those do is they slow the flow down and so all of the biomass will sink to the bottom of them and the clear water comes over the top. And then that biomass is recirculated back up to the front of the plant and it just kind of keeps recirculating around. Then are-

Charlie Seraphin:

Can you track that? How often does the biomass get treated before …

Garrett Goldman:

Well, it will stay in our system for about nine to 10 days before we take it out. Then from there the water goes to our disk filters. They are 10 micron filters. So anything algae, anything big that would be left in the water gets taken out there. And then the final step that it sees is it goes through our UV treatment. We have tubes that have UV bulbs surrounding them. They’re clear tubes. And that disinfects the water before it leaves the plant.

Charlie Seraphin:

Kills any bacteria that might have survived the process up to that point.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, bacteria, viruses, all of that kind of stuff it kills.

Charlie Seraphin:

Was there an additional … Now, you’ve said the word, the magic word, virus. Was there anything additionally that as an industry that you were told to do or watch for during the pandemic?

Garrett Goldman:

No, nothing out of what we normally do. We have a strict safety protocol that we utilize anyways, and all of the, I guess, research indicated that there was no threat of the virus as it went through our plant. And then by the time it goes through the UVs it’s taken care of anyways.

Charlie Seraphin:

We have so many benefits of living here that are so different from all the other areas of the country really, and we don’t want to tell what, even though they’re listening in Tibet, we’re not worried about them coming over in mass numbers and living here. But when we think about our things like the process that you just walked us through here, we’re really kind of blessed to be where we are with the resources that we have. We have reasonable costs for the services. I for one I am going to come out and do the tour, so I’ll be calling and set up an appointment. Is that what you’d like people to do, is set an appointment?

Garrett Goldman:

Yes, you can … Our website actually has …

Deniese Morgan:

It has a form now that an individual or a group or even a field trip with a school, they can complete the form, just give us a couple of day’s notice. We’ll get you set up. We like to do the big groups and groups of 10 or less. And it’s a great tour.

Garrett Goldman:

Yeah, but we’ll do one person or up to 10.

Deniese Morgan:

10.

Charlie Seraphin:

Okay. Well, we’re going to do that. Thank you so much for being here today.

Garrett Goldman:

Thank you.

Charlie Seraphin:

What a neat way to start the week. That was really awesome. Garrett Goldman and Deniese Morgan from Green Valley Water, the new name, and go to their website greenvalleywater.org, check it out and schedule a tour. Get out and see where your poop goes after you hit the button.

I want to thank our sponsors this morning, the Dana Law Group, Banner Health Pace and Medical Center, Pinnacle Propane, Realty Executives, Arizona Territory, the Owens Law Firm, and Sunshine Cleaning and Restoration. Until tomorrow at nine o’clock when we’ll have a new adventure, hope you’ll join us then. Charlie Seraphin saying have a great week. You’re listening to KMOG Payson. It’s 10 o’clock. It’s 10 o’clock. It’s 10 o’clock. It’s 10 o’clock. It’s 10 o’clock. It’s 10 o’clock.