2025 Arizona Water Reuse Symposium
The annual Arizona Water Reuse Symposium, hosted by WateReuse Arizona and the AZ Water Association, brings together industry leaders for education, conversation, and networking in Flagstaff, Arizona. This year’s Symposium was held July 20-22 at the High Country Conference Center.
Arizona Water Reuse 2025 Symposium Recap
The Arizona Section of WateReuse Association and AZ Water Association brought together over 240 leaders from across the Southwest for our Annual Symposium and 20th Anniversary Celebration at the High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff, Arizona July 20-22, 2025. During the event we announced the formation of a new scholarship program in partnership with Gateway Community College. The George Maseeh Operator Scholarship program will award two $1,250 scholarships to deserving students new to the industry or advancing their career through additional operator certifications. The Arizona Section also recognized awards for Person of the Year and Project of the Year. The Symposium opened with a panel discussion titled “Arizona Pure Water: A Grassroots Approach for Statewide Benefit” and concluded with “Operations World Café” working groups on the final day of the program.
Symposium attendees enjoyed participating in the 9th Annual Purple Water Balloon Battle, with Team Rockstars appointed as the winner by our esteemed volunteer judge. Our 20th Anniversary Dinner Gala featured a historical recognition presentation emceed by Guy Carpenter, where we walked down memory lane with photographs, old logos, and agendas. He also showcased a video compilation of interviews with our past and current officers. Several of our past officers were in attendance, and we were thrilled to share this special occasion with them as we celebrated their forethought to begin the Arizona Section of the WateReuse Association in 2005. We rounded out the evening with a proper dance party featuring live music provided by Arizona industry professionals, whose band name for the evening was The Meeples! The band name comes from our Person of the Year awardee, John Kmiec’s, favorite game, honoring his dedication to both thoughtful leadership and facilitating fun for his colleagues.
The presentations are available here.
- Professional Development Certificates (PDH) are available by contacting Lisa Culbert.
2025 WateReuse Arizona Awards
The Arizona section presented two awards during the 2025 Arizona Water Reuse Symposium in Flagstaff. The Person of the Year award was presented to John Kmiec. John has four decades of direct experience supporting and promoting both water and wastewater programs to help shape the future of water stewardship in Arizona. John was appointed Director of Tucson Water in 2022 after coming on board as a Deputy Director in 2019, and after seven years as the Director for Marana Water. Throughout his career, John has championed initiatives that redefined how Arizona communities value water, creating enthusiasm for using every drop more than once. His leadership has laid the foundation for innovative water reuse strategies, infrastructure investment, and public trust.
John was on the Board of Directors when the Arizona section was started in 2005 and continuously served for 16 years before stepping down to serve the National Board of Directors as Treasurer.
One of John’s most enduring contributions is his gift for transforming complex water science into compelling, relatable narratives. He helps the public understand water reuse and feel pride in it, knowing that positive feelings lead to acceptance and action. With each presentation, tour, or council meeting, he reinforces the idea that reusing every drop of water is not just a necessity, it’s a legacy of responsible desert dwelling. His storytelling bridges the technical and emotional, fostering a civic culture of conservation, innovation, and shared responsibility.
And for those of us lucky enough to attend the Arizona Section Board retreats at The Biosphere 2, you may have found yourself playing a game of Cornerstone where your player or Meeple (which stands for My-People) builds a tower and tries to block other Meeples from building bigger, better towers. And don’t you dare take your fingers off your Meeple until you are ready to turn it over to the next player, because A Meeple Laid is a Meeple Played!

The Project of the Year award was presented to Dr. Claire Lauer and ASU Collaborators for Flow Forward, a virtual reality game where players get shrunken down small enough to captain a tiny submarine through the stages of a typical AWP plant, including Ozonation, Ultrafiltration, Reverse Osmosis, and UV Light Filtration. Players battle contaminants in each stage, and at the end of their journey, they return to a group of policymakers, bringing with them the water they just purified. The winning player and policymakers drink to celebrate the success of AWP in augmenting the state’s water supply. To view a development version of this experience, please visit: AWP Virtual Control Room.
AWP Games: Build a Facility, Water Myth and Fact, and Household Impacts
Several short games were built to be embedded into the 360 tours and to exist as stand-alone touchscreen games as part of an NSF-funded museum water-themed exhibit that will travel to communities all over the state of Arizona. The exhibit is currently installed at the Audubon Center in South Phoenix but will make its way to communities around the state, including Bisbee, Black Canyon City, Page, Miam Globe, Tubac, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, and others. The games will soon be available online at watersimmersive.net and other sites. To view development versions of each game, please visit: Build a Facility, Water Myth or Fact, and Water Saving Challenge.
The design and development of the games, experiences, and tours required an immense amount of collaboration with subject matter experts, researchers, developers, programmers, designers, students, and project coordinators. Project collaborators include:
ASU Team Dr. Claire Lauer – Product Owner/Designer Dave White – AWII Director Susan Craig – Funding Director Danielle Storey – Researcher/Designer Dr. Kathryn Lambrecht – Researcher Dr. Marisa Manheim – Researcher Dr. Stephen Carradini – Researcher Amber Hedquist – Researcher UX faculty and graduate students ASU’s Ask A Biologist Team: Dr. Chuck Kazilek (360 Virtual Tour Lead), Sabine Deviche, Karla Moeller | ASU’s Meteor Lab Team: Qianyu Ma (VR Headset Lead), Robert LiKamWa, Julianna Piechowicz and Skye Lucking Scottsdale Water Subject Matter Experts: Brian Biesemeyer, Bryan Cassens, Bryan Bouchard, Gretchen Baumgardner, Suzanne Grendahl Corey Ozan, McClintock High School Science Teacher ADEQ and City of Phoenix |
20th Anniversary Celebration
Watch video recordings of the 20th Anniversary celebration, held on Monday, July 21, below:
Thank You to our Sponsors
