(Photo by Casey Kuhn - KJZZ)

West Valley leaders and EPCOR executives break ground on the plot of land that will hold the 40-acre wastewater treatment plant.

Waterworks company EPCOR ceremoniously broke ground Friday on a new 40-acre wastewater reclamation facility in the West Valley.

The plant is being built next to Luke Air Force Base and will provide service to more than 4,000 homes once completed.

Former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said a project like this can help avoid a future water crisis in Arizona by developing water sustainability and future planning.

“The idea of this plant here is to promote that same kind of reuse in areas in the Valley that haven’t yet been established, but are soon to grow rapidly to make sure that there is a source of water for that future population,” Kyl said.

President of ECPOR USA, Joe Gysel, said the facility is coming at a time when water resources in the West Valley are dwindling.

"The West Valley is obviously built on a very large aquifer, and as the water is drawn on the aquifer you can experience subsidence, where it actually starts to collapse and cave in,” Gysel said.

The $95 million treatment plant will pump 8 million gallons of water a day to be treated and re-injected into the local aquifer.