“Green Valley Water was formed in 1965 as the Payson Sanitary District and that was done by a petition by a majority of the property owners who came up with a better way to treat their sewage than septic tanks,” said Garrett Goldman, Green Valley Water District manager. “We’re what you would classify as a centralized wastewater treatment system.

“What that means is we operate a collections system, which takes the wastewater from each individual residence or business and it channels it all to our reclamation facility through underground pipes,” Goldman continued. “Once it gets here we have one facility that treats the wastewater.”

Green Valley Water is located on the west edge of Payson near Green Valley Park and the Payson Golf Club.

“We’re treating the water back to usable water, with that water going back to Green Valley Lakes and creating an amenity for the entire town and visitors to use and then being taken from there and used to water golf courses to the high school fields from football to baseball to softball, and the middle school field, down there the multipurpose field then out to Chaparral Pines at the Rim,” Goldman said. “Really, we reach the entire community.”

Green Valley Water processes and redistributes over one million gallons of Class A+ reclaimed water per day.

“The process that Green Valley Water uses to treat the sewage, it’s a completely natural process with no chemicals,” Goldman said. “It’s environmentally conscious and you can’t get any greener than the process we use.”

Green Valley Water is unique in that it’s considered an enterprise fund.

“What an enterprise fund is, is all of our fees or all of our costs are funded by our customer base through user fees, but we don’t have a profit motive,” Goldman said. “The way I like to explain it is we’re a private business without the profit.”

Green Valley Water takes pride in providing the best service to the residents of Payson. It all starts with their 22 employees. They work in various departments from administration, operations, laboratory, collections and maintenance.

“The coolest thing about working for Green Valley Water is the staff,” Goldman said. “They’re dedicated. It shows through the product and the customer service that we deliver and it shows through our work environment.”

Just ask Green Valley Water plant manager David Millien. He has been with the company for 37 years.

“You’ve got your ups and downs, but it’s mostly been ups and here at the district, there is always an improvement,” Millien said. “There are always changes making things better.”

Millien said they even joke around from time to time.

“Even though it’s serious here, what we do here, there are always these little things to break the atmosphere and make things enjoyable,” Millien said.

“We operate 24/7, 365 [days a year],” said Deniese Morgan, Green Valley Water administrative services manager. “We have staff here seven days a week usually to 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon and then after that, we have an on-call employee who is always available to answer the phone and take care of emergency situations.”

Morgan has been with Green Valley Water for 11 years. She oversees human resources, including benefits, payroll, accounting and finance.

“We invest in training with our employees,” Morgan said. “It’s hugely important. If we’re not training and we’re staying stagnate, we’re actually falling behind.”

Morgan said all of the field workers at Green Valley Water are accredited with certifications from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).

Helping others understand the value of water reclamation is a key component to the future success of sustainability.

“The first Wednesday of every month we offer tours from 9 to 11 a.m.,” Morgan said. “If there is going to be tours of 10 or more individuals, we ask that you call to make reservations at least a week in advance.”

An important factor in the decision to rebrand is to clarify the purpose and impact Green Valley Water has on the Town of Payson.

“Northern Gila County Sanitary District, for one that is a mouthful. We get a lot of confusion with the trash company,” Morgan said.  “The whole rebranding project initially didn’t even start out as a rebranding project.

“It started out where we needed a new logo. Our old logo was very busy and confusing,” Morgan continued.

“It just says what we do within the logo,” Goldman said. “By the water marker, the squiggly on the top indicating water to the pipes that the G is made out of to the point of indicating recharged water back into the ground, which is what happens at Green Valley Lakes.

“It’s crisp. It’s very identifiable,” Goldman continued.

A new rebrand doesn’t mean the service Green Valley Water provides is changing.

“We’re just going to become more visible to you,” Goldman said. “This goes from our trucks, being able to easily identify them in the field, to signage as you come into our facility.

“It’s going to help us to be able to better serve our customers,” Goldman continued.