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New Pittsburg wastewater plant 52% complete as city installs biological nutrient removal
Summary
City staff told commissioners the wastewater treatment plant project, under a May 5, 2025 notice to proceed, is about 52% complete; the new five-stage biological nutrient removal system is being installed to meet tightened nutrient limits and reduce eutrophication risk.
The city's new wastewater treatment plant is about halfway through construction and is being built to reduce nutrients that can cause algae blooms, officials said at the April 28 budget work session.
"The notice to proceed was issued on May 5th of 2025. It's currently 52% completed," said Chris Bernacchi, the city's plants manager, during a slide briefing that included aerial photos and construction progress reports. The construction team has completed substantial in-ground piping, wet-well work and wet testing of basins, Bernacchi said.
The plant's centerpiece is a five-stage biological nutrient removal (BNR) carousel supplied by Ovivo. Bernacchi described the process and why the city is upgrading: anaerobic and anoxic zones enable microbes to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, converting nitrogen compounds to nitrogen gas and causing phosphorus to settle out through luxury uptake. He said the upgrade is driven in part by federal and state nutrient requirements intended to limit eutrophication and downstream oxygen depletion.
KDHE has been performing random construction inspections, and the project team has been performing wet tests on basins to confirm they hold water before above-ground construction proceeds. Bernacchi also described equipment choices intended to reduce lifecycle costs, including submersible (flooded-suction) pumps for influent pumping to avoid catastrophic dry-pit flood damage to motors.
The city is scheduled to do a power changeover during construction to accommodate the new electrical layouts; Bernacchi said the team has coordinated with Evergy and a backup generator will support critical systems during the roughly four-hour outage window. He said KDHE will be notified if any bypass event is required during the transition but that operators expect to maintain treatment capacity.
The commission was invited to a working-day tour of the plant on June 2 to view the new facilities and progress in person. The plant team said additional decking, clarifier piping and UV-building work are the next visible milestones as construction moves forward.
The project remains in active construction and subject to routine inspections and coordination with state regulators as the city brings the new nutrient-removal systems online.
