The Washington County Water Conservancy District is building a $7 million Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Facility in La Verkin, Utah, that will let residents walk through the treatment process and sample potable reuse water, according to a report published 15 September by KJZZ.
Key takeaways
- The $7 million demonstration facility will be sited off State Street in La Verkin and is scheduled to break ground in spring, opening in 2028.
- The wider Regional Reuse Purification System is targeted to deliver more than 24,000 acre-feet per year by 2042, enough to serve more than 40,000 homes.
- More than $250 million in federal, state and local funding is committed to the broader reuse programme, which also covers three water reclamation facilities, four new reservoirs, 60 miles of pipeline and multiple pump stations.
- The district does not expect potable reuse water to be delivered to taps until 2040, though reuse programme manager Morgan Drake said the timeline can move forward if drought or growth demand it.
- More than 80 communities across the U.S. already operate water reuse and advanced purification projects, according to the district.
What happened
Drake, the district's reuse program manager, framed the facility as a public-facing complement to the Regional Reuse Purification System rather than a treatment plant in its own right. "While it might be new for us, it's not a new concept or new technology. It's safe improvement technology, so we want to be able to show that to the public, the technology that's used to purify that reuse water to drinking water standards," Drake told KJZZ.
The advanced water purification system will "purify reclaimed water, removing impurities and contaminants to make it safe for drinking," and the finished water will be blended with raw water in local reservoirs for storage before being sent to a conventional drinking water treatment plant, according to project information cited by KJZZ. The district says the product water will meet or exceed federal and state drinking water requirements.
Drake said potable reuse could come sooner than 2040 if conditions require it. "If we do find that we're maybe growing a little quicker than anticipated or we're hotter and drier and need more of those drinking water sources sooner, we can bring projects online faster and even slower if we find it's the opposite," Drake said, as reported by KJZZ. Residents in St. George interviewed by the station gave mixed reactions but said a tour-style facility would help. "I think that actually would be a great idea, would be to learn more about it, because when you just hear wastewater, all you can hear is waste. That's kind of what gets stuck in your brain, but I think if you were to see how it's working, how it's cleaned and learn more about it, I think that would really make me more comfortable with the idea of it," homeowner Kadee McElroy told KJZZ.
Specification read
Reported scale and how it converts to buyer units. The district's 24,000 acre-feet-per-year target by 2042 works out to roughly 80,000 m³/day (1 acre-foot ≈ 1,233 m³; 24,000 × 1,233 / 365), distributed across the regional system rather than at a single works, and sized to serve more than 40,000 homes, per KJZZ. The $7 million demonstration facility itself is sized for public access and training throughput, not full-scale production, and it sits ahead of the reservoir blending step rather than inside a working plant.
Treatment train this class of project requires. Indirect potable reuse of this scale is typically built on a multi-barrier train: coarse and fine screening, primary clarification, biological treatment (commonly A2O, MBR, MBBR, SBR or UASB depending on influent strength), tertiary filtration (often granular activated carbon or membrane filtration such as ultrafiltration), reverse osmosis or equivalent advanced separation, and UV plus chlorine or AOP disinfection before reservoir storage. The La Verkin facility bears on the public-facing end of that train, the step where finished water from the regional system is showcased to communities and the gap between reclaimed water and tap water is closed in residents' minds. Operators weighing similar capital outlays will look at Water Purification equipment trains, with Mbr Membrane Systems as the most likely biological-to-tertiary backbone for a reuse project of this footprint. Reuse schematics and operating-cost framings for adjacent sectors are tracked in pieces such as RO vs Ion Exchange for Auto/EV Wastewater: 2026 OPEX Showdown and DAF vs Clarifier for Chemical Plant Wastewater in Springdale, US: 2026 Factory Guide.
What it means for a buyer. If your utility is sized at roughly 50,000 to 100,000 m³/day, draws on a constrained surface-water supply, and faces regulatory or public pressure to add a drought-proof source, the Washington County package — $250 million of combined funding across the reuse system and a separate $7 million demonstration line for community engagement, per KJZZ — is a useful benchmark for what a serious indirect potable reuse programme looks like in capital, footprint and stakeholder work.
FAQ
How big is the reuse system the La Verkin demo facility supports?
More than 24,000 acre-feet per year by 2042, roughly 80,000 m³/day, sized to serve more than 40,000 homes, per KJZZ. The demo facility itself is a public-education site, not a production plant.
What is the capital cost of the demonstration facility versus the wider programme?
The La Verkin facility is reported at $7 million, while more than $250 million in federal, state and local funding is committed to the full Regional Reuse Purification System, which also includes three water reclamation facilities, four reservoirs, 60 miles of pipeline and multiple pump stations, according to KJZZ.
When will potable reuse water actually reach customers in Washington County?
The district does not anticipate potable reuse water being used as drinking water until 2040, though reuse programme manager Morgan Drake told KJZZ the timeline can be pulled forward if growth or drought requires it.
How does the project compare with reuse deployments elsewhere in the U.S.?
The district says more than 80 communities across the country have used water reuse and advanced purification projects, per KJZZ. Operator-facing reporting on adjacent compliance cases in the same period, including Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette coverage of priority sanitation violations at Washington County food facilities, underscores why monitoring and audit trails on reuse programmes are a procurement priority.
