Davenport Plant Dumped Waste into Mississippi

Sewage Treatment Plant Discharged 317 Million Gallons of Partially Treated Sewage into Mississippi River After Heavy Rains, Flooding

Davenport's wastewater treatment plant dumped 317 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the Mississippi River in late June and early July after heavy rains and river flooding overwhelmed the treatment capacity of the plant along Concord Street.

Flood water and storm water runoff infiltrated sewer lines after the heavy rains and the plant began "bypassing" secondary treatment of the sewage, dumping an average of 10 million gallons of sewage per day into the river after onlyprimary treatmentof the wastewater. Primary treatment only involves removal of solids from the wastewater, essentially bypassing the normalsecondary biological treatmentof the waste.

The sewage "bypassed" by the Davenport plant was in addition tothe 129 million gallons of sewage Bettendorf pumped into the river during the same period.

Davenport and Bettendorf jointly own and operate the sewage treatment plant and when flows to the plant exceed its capacity, gates along the main riverfront interceptor line are closed. At that point, sewage backs up in the sewer line into Bettendorf and the city turns on pumps that dump the backed up sewage into storm water pipes that drain into the Mississippi River.

Because of the long-standing capacity problems caused by infiltration of storm water into sewer lines, the communitiesin 2012 signed a "consent order" with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)which requires the cities to begin reducing storm water runoff into sewer lines and addressing the capacity issues at the treatment plant.

Under terms of the legal agreement, the treatment plant owners are to make an estimated $160-million in sewer system improvements over the next 20 years.

Source: Bettendorf

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• Waste Water Treatments
• Environment
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