Ford Motor Company is perhaps Sonora’s biggest name manufacturer and Ford is expanding operations in Sonora.

      Thanks to the new Ford Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr, and Mercury Milan programs, Ford Motor Company’s Hermosillo Assembly Plant (HSAP) will nearly double its production capacity. While this is good news for the company and the facility, the increased production could have placed additional strain on the fragile desert environment surrounding the plant and the water supply to the adjacent community.

      “HSAP has been under extreme pressure to reduce water consumption and has successfully reduced water usage by approximately 65 percent over the past eight years,” said Mike Szafranski, Ford environmental control engineer.

      Ford’s Vehicle Operations, Environmental Quality Office, and the HSAP plant engineering team anticipated HSAP’s increased water demand by taking steps to install a sustainable water treatment system, which will recycle the water used at the facility and minimize the impact on a drought-plagued ecosystem.

      “There is no doubt that Ford has a strong commitment to pursue the implementation of sustainable projects,” said Luis Lara, Ford manager of environmental quality in Latin America. “The water treatment project at Hermosillo is a good example of this commitment.”

      Water is an important part of an assembly plant’s production processes and ongoing functionality, and the plant anticipates usage of approximately 550,000 gallons per day once the new program has reached full production. First and foremost, water is essential to Hermosillo’s ...

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