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PRESCOTT — For sale: Enough water to supply thousands of new homes in Prescott Valley.

Caveat: It's from the town sewer plant.

That hasn't stopped the town from putting the rights to the effluent from its sewer plant up for auction, and it apparently hasn't stopped potential buyers either.

Three companies filed the needed paperwork and made a $1 million deposit to take part in the auction, set for Oct. 29-30, by Friday's deadline.

The town hopes to raise at least $53 million to finance ranchland near Paulden it bought with neighboring Prescott in 2004 as a water source and build a pipeline to bring the water to town.

The winning bidder will receive the rights to 2,724 acre-feet of effluent from the town sewer plant per year. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough for two average families for a year.

The water won't actually be piped into any homes. Instead, the town will allow it to percolate back into the underground aquifer, making it available for later pumping from wells.

The successful bidder may sell the rights to developers or other users who must prove to the Arizona Department of Water Resources that they have a 100-year water supply for their projects. Large parts of the state are managed under similar rules.

An official with a company hired by Prescott Valley to market the auction said it would make water available to support thousands of additional homes in the area.

The auction is a unique answer to a perplexing question across much of rural Arizona, where growth has outstripped available water supply and underground aquifers are stretched thin. By selling off the rights to the sewer plant output, the town gets cash for needed supply improvements.

"We are doing something that no one else has done," Town Manager Larry Tarkowski said.

Others in the state are also eyeing treated wastewater as an answer to their problems.

The town of Marana this week sued Pima County in an effort to take over its sewer lines and a nearby regional water treatment plant run by the county.

The town wants to control the plant and its output so it can use the groundwater recharge credits to support new development.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources requires new development within a 500-square-mile zone around Prescott to prove they have a guaranteed 100-year water supply. Four other so-called "active management areas" exist, in Phoenix and Tucson and in Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties. A department assistant director said the Prescott Valley sewer plant potentially could produce as much water as it plans to sell.

A company called Aqua Capital Management LP, of Omaha, Neb., has an agreement with the town to bid a minimum of $19,500 per acre-foot for the water. Two other companies have filled out bid packets, but they must offer a minimum of $22,500 an acre-foot.