It has been a productive year at KC Water’s Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Crews have been hard at work at the Blue River Biosolids Facility to keep this massive plant upgrade on time and on budget. Take a look at the progress made throughout 2022.

Election Week 2022 was exciting for Kansas City! During this time, a milestone was reached with the arrival of the Thermal Hydrolysis Process (THP) equipment from Cambi. Whether you were focused on what was on the ballot or the pallet, the week was one to remember.

On August 17, representatives from congressional offices, US Water Alliance Chief Executive Officer Mami Hara, Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 Water Division Director Jeff Robichaud, and Mayor Quinton Lucas visited the biosolids facility site for a brief program followed by a short walking tour of the site to see the importance and need for federal infrastructure investments.

The Blue River wastewater treatment plant – the plant that processes the vast majority of solids in Kansas City’s wastewater – retired its half-century old incinerators to adopt new technology, a thermal hydrolysis process (THP). But, what exactly is THP, and how does it work? To answer these questions, let’s look back at how Kansas City wastewater has been processed for the past five decades.

Not only will the Blue River Biosolids Facility have the latest technology to process human waste into a useful agricultural product, the facility is also being designed using the latest architectural technology. Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology takes the place of traditionally-drawn 2D plans and physical 3D building prototype models. Instead, it allows designers to create a digital, visual representation of a future construction project that includes multiple disciplines (e.g. structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and cost estimating).

A big part of recent construction at the Blue River Biosolids plant is the installation of over 200 helical piles. Chances are these helical piles, while not “piles” in the familiar sense, will be all but forgotten once building foundations are laid, but are undoubtedly unsung heroes.

The City of Kansas City, Missouri made a commitment to sustainable infrastructure decades ago. According to the World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Click the link to watch a video of Suzie Carpenter, Black & Veatch design manager, explaining how recycling is a big part of KC Water's new biosolids project. The former KC Water Blue River solids processing building and incinerator stack have been demolished to...

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.