But a 1991 federal court decree requiring those responsible for the contamination to pay for the TCE treatment plant says the city must serve the water from the plant to customers. But so far, they have refused. There were two schools of thought at a public hearing on the recharge project Monday night, both saying the city was doing the wrong thing, but for different reasons. One, voiced by Carol West of the Tucson Regional Water Council and others, held that it was foolish and wasteful to pour drinkable water from the TCE treatment plant into the river and then to spend millions of dollars pumping replacement water from elsewhere. The TCE treatment plant provides 9 percent of the city's drinking water.
Tests indicate the water is cleaner than what the city pumps from the ground.
The other side, voiced by Rich Wiersma and other backers of the 1995 water law, says the city needlessly inflated the cost of the test recharge project by planning to build basins to recharge 2.5 million gallons of water a day instead of letting the water recharge naturally in the river bed. Tucson Water planners say the basins are required to monitor the recharge project. TCE is trichloroethylene, a toxic solvent that causes cancer in laboratory animals. City Councilman Steve Leal said the city has an obligation to honor the voter-approved 1995 water law. But he said as long as the project is held up waiting for EPA approval, the city should investigate whether it can be done cheaper following Wiersma's suggestions.