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Sewage treatment is not what anyone would describe as glamorous — but treating wastewater is one of the many unpleasant but necessary duties we rely on municipal governments to handle. Like maintaining roads and law enforcement, taking care of sewage is one of those jobs that can't be done by individuals. Wastewater treatment is a community undertaking.

Which is why the sewage tug-o-war playing out between Marana and Pima County must be resolved quickly with a regional approach. What's good for Marana may not be the best solution for the entire community.

Access to water will shape the future of the desert Southwest, and Southern Arizona is no exception. Securing rights to a future water supply is necessary for growth, which is what brings Marana and Pima County to the impasse they've now reached.

The municipalities — one a large, established government and the other a small, growing town anticipating even more growth — are posturing to duke it out over who owns the water poured down the drains and flushed down the toilets of Marana homes and businesses.

Marana's Town Council voted 6-0 earlier this week to end an agreement that gives the county control of the wastewater system in Marana. Under Arizona law, he who owns the treatment plant owns the effluent — the treated wastewater that can be used to water golf courses or eventually be turned into potable water.

The town wants the effluent produced by the Marana sewage treatment plant, which processes only wastewater generated from within the town. The plant is outside of town boundaries. Effluent is used to prove that the town has an assured water supply, which is required to support growth.

So in six months, the agreement between Marana and Pima County will end. Marana is moving to annex the treatment facility so the plant will become part of the town.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has countered with a suggestion that the county turn the land around the facility into a park, which would prevent Marana from annexing it. He accuses Marana of trying to finagle a way out of regional obligations to allocate a percentage of effluent to a water rights settlement with Indian tribes and to conservation. Huckelberry says the county offered to lease, sell or convey rights to the effluent to Marana.

Marana town attorney Frank Cassidy says the town shouldn't be bound by those county obligations, because it doesn't draw water from the Tucson basin but from the Marana basin. Also, Cassidy says Marana's needs will never be a priority in the county system.

In short, this thing is likely headed for court, which could be costly to taxpayers, especially since wastewater from homes and businesses in Continental Ranch and Dove Mountain use the Ina Road Treatment Plant, not the Marana facility. This means Marana must work out a deal with the county to handle that waste, at least until the town can expand the Marana plant or build a new one.

Marana's move to break away sets a dangerous precedent. While we understand the town's desire to handle its own wastewater and shape its own destiny, there is more at stake.

To sustain our communities and way of life, municipalities must come together as a region and look beyond their own boundaries.