The City of Kansas City has opted to look into an alternate location for the new Todd Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility after resident push back over the past few months.
Last week, the Kansas City Council voted to perform an environmental assessment on an alternate property, fully within Kansas City limits, with the caveat that should the results of the environmental assessment be unfavorable, the city would move forward on the originally proposed site, which is located partially in the city and partially in unincorporated Platte County. This assessment will take a few months.
Residents of unincorporated Platte County have turned out in droves to oppose the construction of a new wastewater treatment plan on the property only partially within city limits, stating that aside from Hoover Heights, no residents of unincorporated Platte County will benefit from this new plant.
Both the city’s original site, located northwest of the current site of the aging plant off Northwest 144th Street, and a site proposed by opponents, located to the southeast of the current site, were presented to the members of the Kansas City Transportation Infrastructure Committee last week and then moved on to the full city council, which voted to look into the alternate site.
Last month, the Kansas City Water Department presented an overview of its plan to replace the plant. Staff presented several alternate sites for the plant, listing the cons of each. Among those sites was the southeastern property suggested by residents.
Staff said the southeastern site would require more cut and fill dirt work than the city’s preferred site and in total would cost the city more than $14 million in addition to an already $90 million project. It would also add 21 months to the project timeline.
After stating they planned to move forward with their original plan, staff were halted by Kansas City First District Council members Kevin O’Neill and Nathan Willett, who said they would ensure the city seriously considered the alternate site.
Opposition first organized at a standing-room-only public meeting held in August, where residents protested the plan to build the plant in unincorporated Platte County, citing concerns about odor, property values, traffic, aesthetics, health concerns and more. Residents expressed their frustration that, as residents of unincorporated Platte County, Kansas City officials seemed to ignore their concerns.
Last week, Third District Council member Melissa Robinson chastised the Kansas City Water Department for not involving the community sooner and city officials agreed.
Community members also brought forward concerns about environmental contamination on the city’s preferred site, which spurred city officials to investigate.
According to a memo dated Nov. 30, “During public testimony and public meetings, allegations of pollution were made regarding the proposed north treatment site for Todd Creek.”
The city hired Olsson and Associates to conduct an environmental study and acknowledged the community had located an omission.
“This omission was a violation from improperly stored biosolids that resulted in runoff reaching an unnamed tributary to Todd Creek upstream of the existing Todd Creek Wastewater plant,” the memo states. “This runoff caused water quality concerns in the unnamed tributary. The violator was not found to be sufficiently responsible, so the matter was escalated to a Unilateral Order (Order No. 2020-WPCB-1648) issued by the Missouri Department of Natural Resource(MDNR) to the North Site on Sept. 18, 2020, stemming from noted violations of the Clean Water Act from Sept. 20, 2018 to May 6, 2019. A statement from Olsson was requested. Olsson indicated that this violation was not present in any database when they performed their Phase I assessment and was not added to any databases until 2023. In addition, Olsson indicated that ‘historical use of the site as a surface mine does not indicate a recognized environmental condition for the project site.’”
In response to this, a second environmental site assessment will be performed on the city’s preferred site.