Prescott Valley expands stormwater division, pilots groundwater recharge and green infrastructure

Prescott Valley has created a dedicated stormwater division funded by a small fee on utility bills and is moving from largely reactive maintenance toward planned, townwide drainage projects, town staff said during an episode of the town-produced PV in Focus podcast.

Ariana Odom, a staff member in the Prescott Valley Public Works Department who oversees stormwater efforts, said the town currently responds to work orders and calls about clogged culverts and ditches but is building capacity to be proactive. "Right now, unfortunately, we're more in a reactive stage because, you know, there's a a lot of town to get to," Odom said. She described routine maintenance, an example of a driveway culvert blocked by a basketball that staff removed, and efforts this year to clean older sections of the town ahead of monsoon and winter storms.

The town completed Phase 1 of a master drainage plan with WES consultants, producing a publicly available two-dimensional flow model in the town GIS that shows flood areas and depths, officials said. Phase 2 will use that data to identify candidate projects across Prescott Valley, including a pilot stormwater recharge site designed to retain runoff and send water into the aquifer rather than lose it to evaporation.

"It'll be one of the first in the state of Arizona," the PV in Focus host said, describing the pilot. Town staff said they are working with Salt River Project, The Nature Conservancy and the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona on the recharge experiment. Staff emphasized concerns about water quality and pollutants before recharge: if conveyances become impaired, the town would need to begin analytical testing to assess contaminants in stormwater.

Work beyond the recharge pilot includes green infrastructure installations intended to slow runoff and reduce erosion. At George Anderson Park staff contoured a natural drainage way, created a small depression, and planted drought-tolerant landscaping to slow flows and reduce erosion. Odom said volunteers, including a local Boy Scout troop coordinated by a staff member named Brian, helped install the rain garden. "For the future projects of rain gardens or green infrastructures that we plan to install, we will be looking out to residents of our community to help us with that," Odom said.

Staff noted the stormwater program is funded through a line on utility bills and that the town has adopted new stormwater-related code tools and low-impact development standards to encourage capture and retention of stormwater on private and public sites. The town also enforces construction-site controls through a stormwater pollution prevention plan process and monitors developments for pollutant discharges.

For residents wanting site-specific information, Odom said the Phase 1 flow 2D map is available through the town's GIS. Staff said future volunteer opportunities and notices about projects will appear on Prescott Valley social media and public notices.

The interview summarized ongoing program building and planning; no formal council votes or ordinances were recorded during the podcast. The town described completed work (Phase 1 modeling and the George Anderson Park rain garden), near-term pilot projects (stormwater recharge) and continuing operational needs (maintenance, pollutant monitoring and outreach).