Watch a video interview with Wastewater Treatment Division Manager Brent Herring.
A putrid smell had called N I-435 by the Blue River home for about as long as anyone can remember. It’s a smell that creeps across the entire highway.
Kansas City says that the smell will soon be, mostly, going away.
“We’re protecting the public health and the environment,” Wastewater Treatment Division Officer Brent Herring said.
The smell of course belongs to Kansas City’s wastewater treatment center.
“We are working all the time in terms of odor and odor control,” Herring said.
For years the city has been burning waste that gets flushed, causing that awful smell along the highway. But, the city now has a new $100 million wastewater treatment plant that will soon be open.
“A significant impact will be the reduction in the order that we have,” Herring said.
The old plant’s incinerators were built in the 1960s. They were outdated and failing systems. The incinerators couldn’t handle the constant flow of waste from the growing city.
The reason for the smell was the treatment center’s old stacks. The giant chimneys were like an open flame, burning all the waste and releasing the smell. The new plant has been described to be more like a pressure cooker, turning wastewater into biosolids.
Herring says biosolids are safe, can be used as a soil fertilizer on farms and as an energy source. When completed, it will be the largest treatment facility in the Midwest and one of only nine in the country.
Kansas City says the project has dealt with supply chain related issues. The plant’s new completion date is set for 2024.
Source: Alan Shope, New treatment facility will reduce waste smell along Kansas City highways
(2021, Dec. 28), KMBC News.
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