Commissioners begin discussions of wastewater plant upgrades

By NICK BUDD
Hays Post

The Hays wastewater treatment plant on Old U.S. 40 has been standing for more than 50 years. It was installed in 1953 and has undergone several renovations in order to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements. With new regulations looming, the city is considering overhauling the plant with renovations and a possible expansion, a project estimated to cost up to $28 million.

Several years ago, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment notified the city the nitrogen and phosphate levels in the city’s effluent water stream would need to be “significantly lowered in the future.” After working for several years with engineers to modify the plant to fit the standards, the city has determined it no longer can meet requirements without a renovation.

“They didn’t just sit down one day and say ‘We want to start removing nutrients from our water bodies,’ ” said consultant Jeffery Barnard of Burns and McDonnell. “The EPA told them that they need to get a plan together.”

According to Barnard, the state conducted a study on the bodies of water the city drains into and determined nitrate and phosphorus were the leading contributors to water-quality issues. During the most recent permitting process, the city was presented with new requirements for nitrate and phosphorus levels for the upcoming permitting process, which will need to be completed by 2018. The city must also cut down on its ammonia concentrations in order to allow mussels to live.

“Mussels help with biological diversity and filter water as the feed and breed,” Barnard said.

Barnard said that some improvements will be necessary to meet the new standards and some will have to be done in order to replace some aging equipment and technologies. Proposed improvements include renovations to the influent pump stations, head works, treatment process, filter technologies and solids processing. Barnard said improvements to the head works could help save energy costs.

“The two biggest expenses to the plant in terms of energy consumption at the plant are pumping and suppliant air,” Barnard said. “I think there are ways that we can create or conceptualize this new treatment process to reduce the current energy consumption.”

The goal of the project is to make the new facility last for the same amount of time as the old facility, if not longer, something Mayor Henry Schwaller doubted was possible.

“I really think to believe that what will invest in will last for another 60 years is not very wise,” Schwaller said. “That’s not what is going to happen because society is going to change and the EPA is probably going to become more and more stringent over the next couple of years.”

“What we want to do is to develop or institute a process that we tack on to in a linear fashion,” Barnard said. “We can do as much as we can biologically, and then we can add on physical and chemical elements.”

Planning and permitting for the renovated facility will take place between now and the end of this year. The city plans to design and construct the facility between 2015 and 2017 and begin operations in 2018. The project will include renovating the current facilities and adding onto the plant. It is expected to cost between $24 million and $28 million dollars. The city plans on funding the project via bonds.