By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

A short work session for Hays City Commissioners Thursday night involved just one agenda topic for discussion–the wastewater treatment process design selection.

City staff and CDM Smith, the project design-builder, evaluated three options and recommended one for the rebuilding of the wastewater treatment plant.

“This has been a good process,” said City Manager Toby Dougherty. “There’s been a lot of people busting their butts the last month in the background. The meeting we had Thursday afternoon had 15 to 20 people in the room and another 12 to 15 on the conference call.

“This is a big project.”

The Hays WWTP was built in 1953. The $27.6 million upgrade, which must meet stricter effluent discharge requirements by July 2018, is being financed by the city’s State Revolving Fund loan from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The first two options are more of a traditional biological process; the third option is a membrane bioreactor process. After significant evaluation, the 5-stage oxidation ditch with final clarifiers and denitrification filters is the recommended process.

Stan Christopher, HDR Engineering, explained  the process is slightly more expensive than the other two, but has much lower operating costs and is a simpler unit to operate.

Following Christopher’s review, commissioners agreed to move the item to next week’s commission meeting for a vote.

Commissioners also called for a 20 minute executive session, for the commission only, to discuss personnel issues. No action was taken.