State officials have awarded a grant to build a restroom in a popular area north of Sedona that has been shut down in the past because of water quality problems.
The Oak Creek Watershed Council has been awarded $253,000 by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to build a restroom near Slide Rock.
Water quality problems there have largely been due to improper trash disposal and human waste.
The amount of E.coli bacteria in Oak Creek, in the past, has reached 500 times what state environmental regulators say is acceptable. The restroom will be near Midgley Bridge, which is north of Sedona on U.S. 89A.
The grant will also fund waste stations for pets, and a video and guidebook on pollution. Slide Rock is visited annually by more than 400,000 tourists.