Up a Creek Without any Water

Located in the scorched Sonoran Desert, approximately forty-five miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, you will find the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.  The Palo Verde facility, designed as a pressurized water reactor requires enormous amounts of water for cooling purposes.  It is somewhat ironic that it is the only nuclear facility in the U.S. that is not located along a major river or lake.

Even before construction began in 1976, operators of the water hungry facility were negotiating with a consortium of local municipalities for the right to use their treated wastewater.  The consortium, known as the Subregional Operating Group (SROG) for Wastewater Treatment, agreed to sell and deliver treated wastewater to the Palo Verde facility.  Members of the SROG (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Glendale, Tempe and Youngstown) agreed to provide up to 140,000 acre-feet a year (45,619,140,000 gallons) to Palo Verde for cooling purposes.
It was also agreed that treated wastewater would be provided by the SROG at a flat rate of 40% of the rate charged per acre foot of treated wastewater in central Arizona.  It was also agreed that in no event would the rate be less that $20 per acre foot or more than $30 per acre foot. On April 23, 1973, members of the SROG signed the agreement that was to expire in November 2027.
By 2005, members of the SROG were receiving the maximum of $30 per acre foot, initially agreed to, and began to renegotiate terms of the agreement.  Operators of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station could be described as being “over a barrel” or better yet, “being up a creek without any water.”  They entered into renegotiations with the SROG before the original agreement expired in 2027.

In 2009, a new agreement was reached that reduced the amount of wastewater to be provided by the SROG from the original 140,000 acre feet per year to 80,000 acre feet per year.  The cost per acre foot would also increase to $58.57 in 2010 and further increase to $300 in 2026.
Besides being “up a creek without any water” operators of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station have also had to deal with other environmental and safety concerns.  During 2000, an “abnormal” release was reported from the facility.  In a planned release of waste gas from a decay tank, the wrong valve was inadvertently opened allowing gas to escape from another tank.  The incident was quickly detected and corrected.
During 2002, mechanical problems forced the facility to voluntarily shut down for a brief period. In 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) fined operators for improper maintenance of core cooling system water pipes and warned that if improvements were not made they would face a forced shut down.  Palo Verde has hired additional inspectors to correct the situation and have since improved operations.