Wondering what’s going on across from the Jewel store on Sycamore Rd. where they tore down a whole street of homes? The following article, from the Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District’s website will help explain.
The Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District (formerly called the DeKalb, IL Sanitary District) provides wastewater treatment and conveyance services to approximately 45,000 people within the City of DeKalb, Northern Illinois University and outlying unincorporated DeKalb County areas. The District’s wastewater treatment facility has been expanded and upgraded multiple times since its original construction in 1928; however, there are still nearly 80 year old systems in use. The District has utilized many of its facilities well past their useful life and currently finds itself in a situation where crumbling infrastructure combined with stricter environmental requirements necessitates a major improvements project.
Construction for the Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District – Phase 1B Improvements will begin in August of 2017 with Williams Brothers Construction, Inc. from Peoria, IL. This $46.35 million construction project will replace the District’s aging wastewater plant with a modern, more efficient, treatment facility designed to meet current regulatory requirements, easily accommodate future growth and regulatory changes, and allow for the District’s current facility to be re-tasked to better handle wet weather events.
The Phase 1B Improvements project will provide processes to meet anticipated ammonia, nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen), and wet weather regulations. Excess nutrients and ammonia in waterways contribute to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone and are harmful to early life in river ecosystems.
Additionally, the project is designed to optimize energy efficiency and will include equipment that will enable the District to utilize biogas created from the treatment process to power a generator that will produce its own electricity and heat with a goal of being energy neutral by 2030.
Construction of the Phase 1B Improvements will be financed by a low interest loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). The SRF program is administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and receives a portion of its money to fund these types of projects from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. SRF programs operate in each state to provide communities with the resources necessary to build, maintain and improve the infrastructure that protects on of our most valuable resources: water.
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