Water Reclamation Plant
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic District
Location:	S of Grand Canyon National Park, Rte. 8A, Grand Canyon, Arizona
Coordinates:	36°2′54″N 112°9′19″W / 36.04833°N 112.15528°W / 36.04833; -112.15528
Built/Founded:	1926
Architectural style(s):	No Style Listed
Governing body:	National Park Service
Added to NRHP:	September 06, 1974
NRHP Reference#:	74000348 [1]

The Grand Canyon Water Reclamation Plant in Grand Canyon National Park is one of the first water reclamation plants in the United States, pioneering operating principles that are in use in modern facilities.

The South Rim of Grand Canyon, where most of the tourist developments have traditionally been, possesses little water. To help augment the available supply of fresh water, the Santa Fe Railroad, the principal concessioner of the park, developed a plant to reclaim wastewater. This reclaimed water was to return by its own pipeline to the hotel area where it would be used to water grass and plants, to flush toilets in the El Tovar Hotel, and for train steam engines. The plant was built and put into operation in May 1926 supplying reclaimed water at nearly one-sixth the cost of obtaining fresh water. Although tests have proved the reclaimed water to be potable, it has never been used for drinking purposes.

This plant is composed of a number of related structures, and its appearance is essentially the way is has been over the years. The plant consists of the bar-screen boxes, a pre-sedimentation tank, three aeration tanks (two of 24,000 gallons, and one of 50,000 gallons), two clarifiers, a secondary tank, two filters, a storage tank (nearly 300,000 gallons capacity), a holding tank, and a water tank that is used to back-wash the filters. A frame structure with a corrugated tin exterior houses the filter system, aeration generators, and the chlorination system. This two-level, concrete based building also has two shops, an office, and a laboratory to test the water.

Pipes brought the wastewater to the plant where it passed first through a bar-screen box that filtered out solids. It passed through the pipe to a flume where the water was measured to determine the amount passing to the plant. From here, it went to another bar screen box that filters other solids. There, the solids were diverted to the sludge pond some distance from the plant. The wastewater then passed on to a pre-sedimentation tank where grease was separated and solids were diverted to the sludge pond. The water then went to aeration tanks where bacteria worked to help purify the wastewater. From there it went to clarifiers, where remaining grease and solids were removed. The water then passed through filters of stone topped by anthracite coal where the water was "polished" to clear appearance. This water was then chlorinated and sent to a storage tank.

The historic land embraced in this site is a rectangle formed by using the aeration tanks as a center and extending lines 100 yards to the north, 200 yards to the east, 200 yards to the west, and 400 yards to the south.

Until its closing, the plant was in continuous operation with no serious breakdowns, thus much of the equipment and machinery is original.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Water Reclamation Plant, Grand Canyon National Park, Coconino County, AZ: 44 photos, 15 data pages, 3 photo caption pages, at Historic American Building Survey

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