When EPCOR moved to Arizona in 2011, company officials saw a unique opportunity to expand its footprint despite the state’s complicated water challenges, sustained drought conditions and growing population.
Since 2011, EPCOR has invested more than $2.8 million in infrastructure improvements, including building and upgrading wastewater facilities, expanding its meter connections to serve growing areas of the Valley, and partnering with other Valley cities to serve customers and share facilities in areas stretching from the Loop 303 corridor in the West Valley to San Tan Valley.
In November, the utility company moved its more than 31,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters to a new office in Glendale. Over the next decade, the company plans to invest another $1 billion.
The Canadian-based company, which also has a presence in New Mexico and Texas, acquired Chaparral Water Company when it first moved to the state, followed by the acquisitions of Arizona American Water Company and New Mexico American Water Company in 2012.
It has since expanded its reach to the area around Luke Air Force Base and has set more than 100,000 new meter connections in the West Valley to accommodate the area’s growth since 2012. In addition, the company serves a number of other areas including Buckeye, Sun City and Anthem.
“That was just all the organic growth — all that population boom that the West Valley has experienced in the last…dozen years — we’ve captured a large portion of that,” Shawn Bradford, Senior Vice President of Regulated US Water, EPCOR’s U.S. branch, said.
In 2021, EPCOR purchased Johnson Utilities in the San Tan Valley area after the water and sewer company struggled with wastewater treatment issues, overflows and other challenges. EPCOR subsequently invested $259 million in the San Tan Water & Wastewater Districts for facility improvements and built the Copper Basin Water Reclamation Facility, which increased wastewater capacity and ended a moratorium on home building in the area.
“Once the wastewater treatment plant was up and running, they were able to lift that limitation and allow San Tan to grow as demand sees fit,” Bradford said.
EPCOR has also committed to building a standpipe to provide water service for residents in the Rio Verde Foothills outside Scottsdale and trading service territories with Queen Creek to move customers closer to each utility’s infrastructure.
Queen Creek has also collaborated with EPCOR to treat wastewater, and will look to work with the company on future capital projects such as a water treatment plan where both utilities have ownership and can treat their own supplies, said Paul Gardner, water resource director for the Town of Queen Creek.
“We’re so close together and there’s so many opportunities,” Gardner said.
These types of partnerships are financially feasible and can save the companies and customers money, he said.
“It ends up saving…rate payers in both communities, where you can have two or three entities going together to build these facilities,” he said. “And as much as pricing has gone up and how costly everything is, this really is a win for the rate payer, no matter what community they live in.”
EPCOR will continue to face challenges, including continuing to upgrade its infrastructure, especially given the increased costs of building water treatment plants.
Still, Bradford is confident that the company can handle the task.
“We think we’re uniquely qualified to solve difficult water challenges, complex water problems, and when you’ve got sustained drought in a booming economy and a booming population base, there’s a challenge…managing your water resources,” he said.