Sewage from Bettendorf and Davenport will undergo enhanced treatment beginning early next year under revised terms of a consent order signed in February with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).
The revised agreement establishes Feb. 28, 2022 as the deadline for adding disinfection treatment, using ultraviolet light, at the Davenport Wastewater Treatment Plant, which handles sewage from Davenport, Bettendorf, Riverdale and Panorama Park.
Owners of the Davenport Waste Water Treatment Plant – the cities of Davenport, Bettendorf, Riverdale and Panorama Park – now appear likely to avoid building a multi-million holding basin designed to handle overflows of sewage and stormwater to the plant during flooding and after heavy rains.
The equalization basin – estimated to cost $25 million back in 2012 – was the most expensive requirement of a 2013 consent agreement between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and the cities, which jointly operate the treatment facility along the Mississippi River on Concord Street, Davennport.
Flooding and heavy rains early this month once again forced Bettendorf to pump raw sewage into the Mississippi River.
That's because the Davenport Sewage Treatment Plant wasn't able to handle inflows to the facility and closed gates to the main interceptor along the Mississippi riverfront, requiring Bettendorf to pump sewage from its riverfront lines into storm water pipes that flow into the river.
If the city did not use the pumps, sewage could back up into riverfront businesses and homes.
Upgrades to the jointly owned Davenport/Bettendorf sewage system over the past four years has led to "marked reductions" in untreated and partially treated sewage being dumped into the Mississippi River during flooding and after heavy rainfalls.
According to the annual report to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) filed April 1, the improvements to the sewage treatment plant and sewage collection systems in the two communities have "reduced sewer backups and overflows.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study says $271 billion is needed to maintain and improve the nation’s wastewater infrastructure, including leaking pipes that carry wastewater to treatment plants, sewage treatment plant technology, and management of stormwater runoff.
The amount of partially treated sewage dumped into the Mississippi River by Davenport's Sewage Treatment Plant last month totaled more than 136 million gallons.
The so-called "bypassed" sewage received only primary – not secondary – treatment because flows to the plant on Concord Street were beyond its capacity as storm water runoff infiltrated sewer lines after heavy rains.
As the sewage flows backed up in lines to the treatment plant, Bettendorf pumped more than 29 million gallons of sewage and storm water into the river after the heavy rains in late June and early July.
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