Cowskin Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant #3

Cowskin Creek Water Quality Reclamation Facility is owned and operated by the City of Wichita Public Works and Utilities Department. The facility not only serves the community’s wastewater treatment needs, but residents also use the grounds for recreational activities such as fishing, biking and running.

The Cowskin Creek Water Quality Reclamation Facility, also referred to as “Plant 3” has serviced the sanitary sewer area in the northwest portion of the City of Wichita since 2003. The facility is a 2.0 MGD biological nutrient removal (BNR) plant and currently receives and treats about 750,000 gallons of wastewater per day. The treated effluent from this facility is received by two ponds that are available for recreational fishing to the public before the treated water is ultimately discharged into Cowskin Creek. In early 2015, KDHE imposed a Consent Order mandating rehabilitation of the headworks and solids treatment systems by June 30, 2016. Our team’s approach was built around meeting the City of Wichita’s objectives of achieving the compliance schedule, as well as providing improvements to the facility operations via innovative solutions and construction sequencing at no additional cost to the City. The planning, design and construction for the facility included:

– Installation of a new grit removal unit

– Rehabilitation of the influent screening channels

– Significant reconfiguration and reconstruction of the biosolids digestion and dewatering process

– Installation of a new centrifuge for solids processing

– Installation of a new biofilter system

– Replacement of the effluent reuse pumps and reconfiguration of the pumping control system