Glendale staff outline plan to approve recovery-well permits and sell one effluent credit to Vai Resort

Glendale city staff told the City Council on May 27 they plan to provide a consent letter allowing the Vai Resort to drill a groundwater recovery well and to sell one effluent (recharge) credit so state permitting can move forward.

The issue matters because state law prohibits providing water for large, nonexempt water features in active management areas unless regulators are satisfied the use is permitted or replaced; staff said the consent letter and the single-acre-foot sale are procedural steps the Department of Water Resources requires to accept the resort’s applications. "The Vai Resort is located in the Salt River Project service area and we have plenty of water in the SRP service area," Director of Water Services Ron Serio said. Serio summarized the legal limit staff cited: "a body of water is defined as a pool, a lagoon, a lake, or any water feature that has a surface area over 12,320 square feet." He said some exemptions exist for public government facilities and for hotels or resorts, but Vai’s two roughly 1-acre features exceed the statute’s simple exemption, so the resort plans to pair a recovery well with an offset of recharge credits.

City staff described two permits the resort must obtain from the Department of Water Resources (DWR): a drilling permit and a recovery permit. As Serio explained, DWR will not process those permit applications without a consent letter from the local water provider. To allow processing to continue immediately, staff proposed selling Vai one effluent credit (one acre-foot, about 325,000 gallons) at $550 per acre-foot, a price staff said was informed by recent purchases by the Arizona Water Banking Authority. "The Arizona Water Banking Authority purchased some credits in September 2024 at $973 per acre-foot and more recently in February at $533 per acre-foot ... we thought the $550 per acre-foot was a fair market value," Deputy Director Megan Sheldon said.

Staff said Glendale’s water portfolio is large relative to the resort’s needs: Glendale holds over 200,000 groundwater credits and roughly 20,000–30,000 effluent credits within about a mile of the resort site, and staff estimated the resort will ultimately need between about 1,000 and 1,500 credits to cover roughly 30 years of water use for its amenities. Serio described the operational approach: the resort would pump groundwater to fill the large pools and then replace that groundwater at a recharge facility using effluent credits, creating a net-zero groundwater balance in practice.

Council members asked procedural and public‑engagement questions during the workshop. "Why was this item removed as an action item from the last voting meeting agenda and now reappearing on the consent agenda without allowing for public comment?" Council Member Conchas asked. Staff replied the item was pulled previously to allow additional council questions and therefore was presented at workshop; they said because the workshop had occurred, the item was now appropriate for the consent calendar at the upcoming voting meeting. Several council members urged staff to ensure ample opportunity for public comment at the voting meeting and noted that community members can still submit speaker cards on consent items.

No formal vote was taken at the workshop. Staff described the next step as placing an item on the next voting meeting consent agenda asking the City Council to authorize the city manager to submit the recovery-well consent letter to DWR and to execute a purchase-and-sale agreement for one effluent credit at $550 per acre-foot to allow DWR to process the resort’s permits. Council members indicated they expected to review any additional information requested before the consent vote and that any council member could pull the item from consent at the voting meeting for discussion.

Background and context: staff said the Mesa surf park project used a comparable approach, trading surface‑water credits with the host city, and that effluent and River/Colorado credits carry different market values. Staff emphasized the sale of one credit is a procedural step to permit processing, not the full supply solution; the resort is seeking to acquire a larger block of credits (staff said 1,000–1,500) to support long‑term operations. Staff also said Glendale annually recharges roughly 5,000–6,000 acre-feet and continuously accrues credits. "In the grand scheme, it’s not much," Serio said of the one‑credit sale. "We have plenty of credits available that could be used."

Ending: Because this was a workshop item, no binding action occurred; the council was told the matter is scheduled for the next voting meeting consent calendar, where the council can act or pull the item for discussion and the public can speak during the voting meeting's public comment on agendized items.