Deluge Press Releases

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YUMA, ARIZONA -- Sitting idle for the last 32 years is the Yuma Desalting Plant (YDP), a brackish water desalination facility owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation that can provide 70,000 acre-feet of drinking water per year. Deluge Technologies, Inc. (DTI) has proposed to “Repurpose” the YDP for use in supplying drinking water to Central Arizona. DTI has proposed to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA), a project that will Repurpose and Retrofit the YDP, and build a water pipeline along I-8, from Yuma, through Gila Bend, to the Central Arizona Project in north Buckeye. 

The YDP was built in 1992 to satisfy a treaty with Mexico, guaranteeing that the Colorado River will always supply water to Mexico, if the river flow dropped, the YDP would make up the difference. The YDP was never needed. The treaty agreement is outdated and flawed, and it is time to put this valuable desalting asset to good use. Mexico doesn’t need the Colorado River water, they have an unlimited supply of water from the Gulf of California, and with modern desalination technologies, can supply all the clean water necessary. 

DTI plans to retrofit the YDP with the Deluge Hydraulic Engine technology, the new engine that runs on hot water, and use the Hydraulic Engine to pump water through the pipeline. The Hydraulic Engine is designed to operate using solar thermal or geothermal hot water as fuel, but the YDP will get hot water from capturing waste heat from the APS Yucca Power Plant across the street from the YDP.  DTI also plans to add capacity to the YDP, doubling and tripling the drinking water output, by adding distillation desalination to the current reject water output form the YDP, and expanding the facility with a new underground brackish water source, currently untapped in Southwest Arizona. 

 “We expect the government to agree that the YDP should be put to use supplying water to Arizona” said Brian Hageman, CEO of DTI. “This valuable asset will become an integral part of Arizona’s water future”. Hageman continued, “Arizona doesn’t need to import water from Mexico, we have plenty of water in Yuma that can make the state self-sufficient.”