In 1997, the City of Garden City initiated design and construction work to improve its 3.5 million gallon per day Wastewater Treatment Facility. Key design criteria were that the new facility would remain at the site of the existing plant and that many existing structures would be either re-used or kept for future use.
The facility upgrade was completed in 2001, and with the improvements made the Wastewater Treatment Facility is now capable of treating an average wastewater flow of 6 million gallons per day. During short periods of peak flow, the facility can treat up to 12 million gallons per day.
In addition to the increase in capacity, the facility can now remove ammonia, total nitrogen and phosphorus to permitted limits set by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Further, disinfection equipment destroys pathogens in the wastewater. Waste bio-solids removed from the wastewater are processed to reduce the total solid waste volume and to destroy harmful micro-organisms before reuse of the solids as fertilizer.
Treated water is further disinfected through ultra-violet treatment and reused for industrial uses, irrigation on animal feed crops, and discharged by federal permit to the Arkansas River.